Reuters
February 13, 2012
The European Central Bank kept its controversial government bond purchases to an absolute minimum last week, spending less than 150 million euros for the third week running and shrugging off anxieties surrounding Greece's strained debt deal.
The ECB has all but halted its purchases of troubled euro zone debt over the last month and a half, following both a substantial improvement in key euro zone bond markets and the emergence of calls for it to take losses on its Greek bonds.
Last week's 59 million euros worth of purchases represents another token signal that the program is still operational and edges the amount the ECB has spent since starting the purchases back in May 2010, up to 219.5 billion euros. (For details click)
Critics of the 'Securities Markets Programme' as it is known, including Juergen Stark who recently quit the ECB over the purchases, argue they tread dangerously close to the ultimate ECB taboo of financing euro zone governments.
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