La The ECB has kept its calming purchases of government bonds in the euro area close to zero last week. The Frankfurt Institute has taken over bonds for only 59 million euros, against 124 million the previous week and 63 million two weeks ago. Values that are almost irrelevant for these operations, just think in the seven days ending on 20 January, purchases had reached 2,243 billion euros.
These are targeted operations that the monetary institution carries out on market segments under tension, in particular to prevent the turbulence in the sector from compromising the correct transmission of the parameters of its monetary policy. Last August, after a further worsening of the Euroland public debt crisis, the ECB had reactivated these operations, after a long period in which they had remained at a standstill.
Later he had also extended them to the bonds of Italy and Spain, as well as those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. In the most intense weeks of this programme, the ECB was able to make weekly purchases worth tens of billions, with a record of 22 billion in the week ending 16 August.
