Confidence in Europe has soared over the last year, according to Berenberg’s analysis of the European Central Bank’s balance sheet, prompting its strategy team to speculate that the eurozone crisis is nearly over.

Holger Schmieding, who leads Berenberg's team, says households, companies and banks needed to find liquidity from somewhere when they lost trust in their business partners during the eurozone crisis. Banks turned to the European Central Bank and, as a result, the size of ECB's balance sheet peaked at 33% of the eurozone's Gross Domestic Product in 2012 (see chart).