ECB has €22 bln in Greek bonds

In just over a year, the European Central Bank acquired Greek sovereign bonds worth a total of 21.936 billion euros in the context of its extraordinary bond-buying program (PEPP), thereby surpassing the Greek state’s issuing activity in that period 1.4 times. The data that Frankfurt released on Wednesday concern the period from March 18, 2020 till March 31, 2021.

Notably the Greek benchmark bonds in the market add up to some €59 billion, therefore the ECB holds more than a third of that through its PEPP program. Frankfurt’s total purchases using this instrument to combat the pandemic’s effects have come to €943.2 billion, out of a total of €1.85 trillion scheduled for that purpose.

In the last couple of months (February-March 2021), the ECB purchased Greek bonds amounting to €2.986 billion, which has been the second lowest two-month sum since the PEPP was launched, after the €2.643 billion in December 2020-January 2021. The peak was in June-July 2020, when the ECB bought Greek debt worth €5.256 billion.

While the PEPP has been in action, Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency has raised €15.5 billion through bond issues – i.e. €9.5 billion in March-December 2020 and €6 billion from this year’s 10-year and 30-year notes.