FRANKFURT, March 14 (Reuters) - Germany's savings banks
wrote down 7.8 billion euros ($8.34 billion) on investments in
2022 because of losses in the value of fixed-income securities,
the German Savings Banks association said on Tuesday.
That is 4 billion euros more than a year earlier.
"This is because when interest rates rise sharply,
lower-yielding fixed-income securities suffer temporary losses
in value," the association said.
German savings banks, owned by local governments, play a
major role in the economy.
Helmut Schleweis, who oversees the association, said the
savings banks were strong enough operationally that they only
had to use a small part of their reserves to finance the
writedowns.
The approximately 360 savings banks made around 1.5 billion
euros in profit in 2022, after 1.6 billion euros the year
before.
($1 = 0.9351 euros)
(Reporting by Klaus Lauer; writing by Tom Sims; editing by
Rachel More)
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