ECB Bought the Debts of Spain and Italy

ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet

Last week the European Central Bank (ECB) bought the debt of countries in the Eurozone, but the last Sunday night a key decision was made to relieve the tensions that affect Spain and Italy in the markets.

Today the financial organism announced that last week the purchase of the debt of the euro zone for a value of 22,000 million of euro, which in its most part belong to the bonds of Spain and Italy. In a smaller scale it belongs to the public debt of Portugal and Ireland, although the organism does not point out which percentage belongs to what country.

This decision supposes a qualitative leap in the small involvement of the economic authorities in relation to the purchase of debts from economic troubled countries. The program was activated on March, in the beginning it was made to acquire the Greek bonds, but last Thursday, Trichet spoke of reactivate it although the only movements detected were focused on the debts of Ireland and Portugal. Going from helping these countries with a smaller dimension of troubles to intervene and help Italy and Spain, represents a huge step in the strategy of the monetary authority. (AV)

Source: El País