Euro Crisis Monitor

The Institute of Empirical Economic Research at Osnabrück University has been tracking TARGET2 balances from October 2011 to September 2015, nearly on a daily basis. In our view, it was a key indicator of Europe's balance of payments crisis and continues to be a biomarker of financial stability in the Euro area. As of September, 2015, the ECB is providing these numbers in a common database.

Download Data (last update: January 2020)

Raw data and high-resolution graphs are available in two versions:

Option 1 [download]

Based on data of the ECB's Statistical Data Warehouse
Series as monthly averages of daily data
Data are reported with lag of 2 month
A convenient way for the press and public to access the data

Option 2 [download]

Based on data of the national central banks of the Euro Area. A complete data appendix can be found in "The role of creditor seniority in Europe's sovereign debt crisis", Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, Economic Policy, 2014.
End of month data
Data sources report with lag of 1 month (but only infrequently updated here)
Enables researches to replicate/update studies on Target2-balances (written before 09/2016)

Research on Target2 and the Euro Crisis

Working Papers:

Evergreening in the Euro Area: Facts and Explanation
Aaron Tornell, Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, IEW Working Paper #113, 07/2018.

Journal Articles:

Capital Flight to Germany: Two Alternative Measures
Yin-Wong Cheung, Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, Journal of International Money and Finance, forthcoming.

Exit Strategies, Capital Flight and Speculative Attacks: Europe's Version of the Trilemma
Andreas Steiner, Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, European Journal of Political Economy, 2019.

Multilateral Loans and Interest Rates: Further Evidence on the Seniority Conundrum
Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, International Journal of Finance and Economics, 2017.

The role of creditor seniority in Europe's sovereign debt crisis
Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, Economic Policy, 2014.

The Tragedy of the Commons and Inflation Bias in the Euro Area,
Valeriya Dinger, Sven Steinkamp & Frank Westermann, Open Economies Review, 2014.

TARGET2 and Central Bank Balance Sheets: Discussion
Frank Westermann, Economic Policy, 2014.

Target2-Salden: Datenquellen und Informationsgehalt als Krisenindikator,
Sven Steinkamp, Wirtschaftsdienst, 2014.

Recent Press Coverage

Gastbeitrag in AnlegerPlus, Ausgabe 5/2019
Gastbeitrag Handelsblatt-Online, Januar 14, 2019
Interview Börsenzeitung, August 08, 2018