ECB Bonds with the Eurozone

The ECB settled €2.313bn of bond purchases last week after only
buying €113 just 2 weeks ago. These numbers show that the ECB
significantly stepped up purchases of bonds to support the periphery.
The cumulated amount of bonds purchased by the ECB now represents
€76.5bn, which is almost 16% of the Greek, Irish and Portuguese
outstanding debt.

Last week, markets were comforted somewhat by the success of the first
debt issuance in Portugal, Spain and – but to a lesser extent –
Italy. But the appeasement is likely to be 'only temporary' and
several important tests still have to be passed in the coming weeks
and months. Uncertainty about the sovereign crisis in Europe is far
from over and concerns regarding the long term sustainability of
public debt in the peripherals remain vivid. Overall, I believe that
bond purchases will continue this year. But, now that the ECB has
adopted a much more hawkish stance and urged European governments to
take the lead on the sovereign debt crisis management (so that it can
remove non-standard measures and focus on inflation risks) the
question remains open on whether the EFSF could eventually replace the
ECB as bond buyer of last resort.
Source: Fxstreet.com