French central bank says losses peaked in 2024, should ease here on out

PARIS (Reuters) - France's central bank reported on Wednesday a fresh loss for 2024, but said the worst was behind it and a return to profit in the coming years was in sight.

Many central banks have been posting losses as interest payments on commercial banks' excess liquidity deposited with them is currently higher than income from bonds they hold.

The Bank of France said its net loss last year amounted to 7.7 billion euros ($8.4 billion), which it would carry forward against future profits although it needed to do so less than other central banks because its bigger rainy-day funds offset more of its losses.

As the European Central Bank's deposit rate comes down and its bond holdings gradually decline, future losses would progressively decrease in the coming years, the central bank said.

"We project the Bank of France will return to profit in a limited number of years," Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told journalists.

The German central bank posted a 19.2 billion euros loss for 2024 and the European Central Bank booked a 7.9 billion loss for the year.

($1 = 0.9168 euros)

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Toby Chopra)