framework. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i believe the discussions you are going to have today and tomorrow will provide important insights for addressing these issues too. i would like to thank the organizers of the workshop : francesca lotti and francesco manaresi from the bank of italy, salome balsandze from the einaudi institute of economics and finance and the cepr, and luigi marengo from luiss - guido carli university. i also thank alessandra piccinini from the bank of italy for taking care of the logistics. i welcome you once again and wish you a fruitful exchange of ideas, as well as a pleasant stay in rome. designed by the printing and publishing division of the bank of italy

maximum amount that the counterparties can borrow through these operations will be raised to €3, 000 billion. as a bridging measure, until june 2020 additional ltros will be conducted at favourable conditions and with full allotment of the amounts requested. alongside the asset purchase programme already under way, equal to €20 billion in monthly purchases, banca d ’ italia address by governor ordinary general meeting of shareholders a further €120 billion has been allocated for additional net purchases until the end of the year, with a significant contribution from the private sector purchase programmes. these measures were further reinforced at the meeting of 18 march last, when the governing council announced a new programme for the purchase of public - and private - sector securities amounting to €750 billion this year. this new pandemic emergency purchase programme ( pepp ) will continue until the end of 2020 but may be extended if the public health emergency continues. ample flexibility is envisaged for purchases of public - sector securities to enable, should market conditions require it, divergences with respect to the current allocations, both in respect of jurisdictions and asset classes. the range of eligible securities issued by private firms has been extended to include commercial paper of sufficient credit quality ; the eligibility criteria for collateral have been relaxed further, to facilitate recourse to refinancing by banks. within our mandate, we stand ready to increase the volume of purchases, adjust their composition and explore all possible options for supporting the economy in this acutely difficult phase. it was also decided to consider revising past self - imposed limits in carrying out these operations, to the extent necessary to make the interventions proportionate to the current risks ; any impediment that might hamper the effective transmission of monetary policy will not be tolerated. the balance sheet at the end of 2019, the bank of italy ’ s total assets amounted to €960 billion, a decrease of €8 billion compared with the year before. assets continued to consist mostly of securities purchased for monetary policy purposes, equal to €384 billion, of which around €320 billion made up of italian government securities. refinancing operations, totalling €220 billion, decreased by €24 billion owing to early repayments on tltro ii operations, only partly offset by amounts allotted under the new tltro iii operations. overall, monetary policy assets make up more than 60 per cent of the total balance sheet. the value of gold rose by almost €20