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The Major Central Banks’ Balance Sheets
Total assets as a share of GDP: Federal Reserve, Eurosystem, Bank of Japan, Bank of England, Swiss National Bank and People’s Bank of China, quarterly, %
2 of 6 series are above their level a year earlier·4 of 6 are at a five-year low
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
Bank for International Settlements, central bank total assets statistics: assets at the end of each quarter as a share of annual GDP, as the BIS compiles them. The Eurosystem is the ECB and the euro-area national central banks.
Two decades of quantitative easing and its unwinding. The 2008 crisis and the pandemic doubled balance sheets in the West; the Bank of Japan kept buying long after, and since 2022 most have been shrinking.
What this chart reads·6 series
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- Federal Reserve Total Assets · % of United States GDPas “Federal Reserve”latest 2026-04-01
- Eurosystem Total Assets · % of Euro Area GDPas “Eurosystem”latest 2026-01-01
- Bank of Japan Total Assets · % of Japan GDPas “Bank of Japan”latest 2026-04-01
- Bank of England Total Assets · % of United Kingdom GDPas “Bank of England”latest 2026-04-01
- Swiss National Bank Total Assets · % of Switzerland GDPas “Swiss National Bank”latest 2026-01-01
- People's Bank of China Total Assets · % of China GDPas “People's Bank of China”latest 2026-04-01
Sources·6 sources
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Federal Reserve Total Assets · % of United States GDP. Source: Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.US.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily.
Eurosystem Total Assets · % of Euro Area GDP. Source: Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.XM.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily.
Bank of Japan Total Assets · % of Japan GDP. Source: Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.JP.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily.
Bank of England Total Assets · % of United Kingdom GDP. Source: Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.GB.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily.
Swiss National Bank Total Assets · % of Switzerland GDP. Source: Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.CH.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily.
People's Bank of China Total Assets · % of China GDP. Source: Bank for International Settlements, Central bank total assets (WS_CBTA), series WS_CBTA/Q.CN.B.XDF_R_B1GQ._Z.B, via the BIS statistics API (stats.bis.org). BIS terms: "The use of BIS statistics is unrestricted, provided that if the statistics are reproduced, the BIS must be cited as the source" (bis.org/terms_statistics.htm); shown in the product, not sold through the API. Read daily.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.