ECB koopt meer staatsobligaties (en)
The European Central Bank on Monday announced that its purchase of eurozone government bonds jumped to €1.121 billion over the past week.
The increase, almost twice the previous week's purchase of €603 million in government bonds, comes despite the low level of trading over the Christmas period, as Frankfurt maintains its eurozone vigilance in Frankfurt even amid turkey dinners and carols.
Total government debt purchases by the ECB amount to €73.5 billion since it began a buying programme in May when the Greek government hit the wall in its attempts to sell public debt to investors.
The ECB debt purchase scheme is intended to ease pressure on government borrowing costs.
Despite the jump in the last week, purchases still remain far below the scale of similar actions in May, when the central bank was intervening with buys of sometimes over €10 billion each week.
Since the height of the Greek crisis, the purchasing programme had been significantly reined in.
However, with the return of eurozone turbulence, the ECB in December upped its public debt acquisitions.