BRUSSELS (MNI) – The European Central Bank isn’t targeting a
specific bond spread level with the bond-buying program it launched
earlier this year, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday.
“We launched the program in May to help restore a normal
functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism,” Trichet
said. “We never targeted a specific spread.”
“We have the observation of what are the functioning of the
markets… we do what we judge to be appropriate, based on what we are
observing,” Trichet added.
The ECB launched its Securities Market Program to buy government
bonds earlier this year in order to avert a major meltdown in EMU
sovereign debt markets, triggered by the crisis in Greece.
Trichet stressed that the bond buying program was “not over,” even
though the central bank has purchased no securities for the past three
weeks. He would not be drawn on when the ECB might exit the programme.
Trichet was speaking at a press conference after the ECB said it
was leaving its main refinancing rate at 1%, where it has been since a
25-point cut after the Governing Council’s May 7, 2009 meeting.
–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: MT$$$$,M$$FX$,M$$EC$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$]