(ANSA) – ROME, AUGUST 17 – In July 2024, the European Central Bank also began to lighten its portfolio of bonds purchased in the pandemic emergency with the ‘Pepp’ program, after having done the same with the ‘App’ program in March 2023. But the ‘quantitative tightening’ on the Pepp, in its first month, spared Italian securities. Reducing the securities in the portfolio of the main countries including France and Germany, but increasing those of Italy. This is revealed by the data provided by the ECB relating to the Pepp portfolio in the period 24 June-24 July, when the ECB, in the face of an increase of 335 million in the Italian Pepp portfolio, cut that of Dutch securities by 2.8 billion euros, Belgian and German by 2.2 billion each, Austrian by 2.1 billion, French by 1.4 billion, Spanish by 1.2 billion. A remodeling of the Pepp portfolio that has nevertheless allowed the expected monthly reduction of 7.5 billion for the overall portfolio of European securities, and which was foreseen from the beginning by the instrument launched by the ECB in March 2020. The flexibility of the Pepp can stabilize spreads and can be a tool capable of keeping the cost of debt at bay for Italy, which according to Eurostat in 2023 – a year in which ECB interest rates doubled – continued to fall to 2.9% compared to 3.2% in 2022. (ANSA).
2024-08-18 13:19:03