FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank abstained from making
bond purchases through its Securities Markets Programme yet again last
week, the central bank announced on Monday.
For the second week in a row, the ECB announced that no SMP
transactions were settled in week ending February 4. The past two weeks
mark the longest period that the bank has made no bond purchases since
October, when the ECB had gone three weeks without settling any bond
buys.
With the ECB taking yet another breather last week, the total
amount of bond buys to be drained is unchanged at E76.5 billion for the
fourth consecutive week. The ECB will drain that amount in a quick
tender to collect one-week term deposits.
The operation, to be conducted on Tuesday at 10:30 GMT, will be in
the form of a variable-rate tender with a maximum bid rate of 1.00%, the
bank said. The liquidity will be held for one week at the bank as a term
deposit. The fixed-term deposits can be used as collateral in the
Eurosystem’s credit operations.
The central bank also said it intends to hold another
liquidity-absorbing operation next week.
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —
[TOPICS: MGX$$$,M$X$$$,M$$EC$]