FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank said Monday it has bought 26.3 billion euros ($28.7 billion) worth of bonds under its controversial quantitative easing programme within the first 10 days.
At the same time, ECB President Mario Draghi told a hearing of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in Brussels that the central bank was "on track" to meet its stated goal of a total 60 billion euros in bond purchases per month.
"On March 9, we started purchasing public-sector securities as part of our expanded asset purchase programme," Draghi told the regular hearing, transmitted live online.
According to data released on the ECB's website, the QE purchases totalled 26.3 billion euros as of last Wednesday, March 18.
"Overall, our asset purchases will amount to 60 billion euros per month. The pace of purchases so far puts the overall programme on track to reach a total of 60 billion euros in March," Draghi said.
On January 22, the ECB announced a massive 1.14-trillion-euro bond purchase programme which will take place over at least 18 months.
The aim is to pump liquidity into the financial system so as to kick-start lending and push up inflation, currently below zero.
Some analysts have suggested, however, that the ECB might find it difficult to find sufficient bonds to buy, as many investors will be unwilling or unable to sell top-rated government bonds, particularly those belonging to Germany.
Draghi rejected such suggestions.
"At this point in time we see no signs that there will not be enough bonds for us to purchase. Feedback from market participants so far suggests that implementation has been very smooth and that market liquidity remains ample," he said.
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