FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank announced on Monday
that it had settled E8.581 billion worth of sovereign debt purchases in
the week ending November 25, up from E7.986 billion the previous week
and E4.478 billion settled the week before.
In its latest Economic Outlook, published earlier today, the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development added its voice to
international calls for the ECB to accept a more aggressive role in
confronting the Eurozone crisis. Should monetary policy transmission in
the euro area as a whole become “more seriously impaired,” the ECB will
have to pursue “more radical, non-standard measures,” the OECD said.
While not explicitly citing more aggressive bond buys, the
reference to the monetary transmission mechanism — which the ECB cites
as the reason for its bond market interventions — makes clear that this
is what the OECD is referring to.
The ECB purchases settled last week bring the cumulative total
still on the bank’s balance sheet to E203.5 billion. As usual, the
central bank said it will seek to sterilize the entire amount through a
quick tender to collect one-week term deposits.
The deposit tender, to be held Monday at 1030 GMT/0530 ET, will be
conducted as a variable-rate operation with a maximum bid rate of 1.25%,
the ECB said. The fixed-term deposits can be used as collateral in the
Eurosystem’s credit operations.
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —
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