ECB ups pace of sovereign bond buying

The European Central Bank bought more government bonds last week than it has in any week since May, just as the market was roiled by speculation about a possible reduction in purchases, ECB data showed on Monday. The central bank does not comment on why it increases or decreases its purchases, but last week's surge in yields would have made buying bonds easier in countries like Germany, where short-term debt is often beyond the bank's reach because it yields less than the deposit rate.
The ECB bought 18.07 billion euros ($20.24 billion) worth of sovereign bonds last week, the most since late May, before the start of its corporate debt programme allowed the ECB to slow slightly its purchases of government bonds. The weekly increase came just as government bonds sold off, after a Bloomberg report that the ECB might gradually wind down its 80-billion-euros bond-buying programme.