Pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP)
Reinvestments under the PEPP were fully discontinued at the end of 2024 (the last trading day for PEPP purchases was 17 December 2024 in anticipation of significantly lower market liquidity towards the end of the year).
The ECB’s pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) was a monetary policy measure initiated in March 2020 to counter the serious risks to the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the outlook for the euro area posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The PEPP was a temporary asset purchase programme covering private and public sector securities. The Governing Council decided to increase the initial €750 billion envelope for the PEPP by €600 billion on 4 June 2020 and by €500 billion on 10 December 2020, to a new total of €1,850 billion. All asset categories eligible for purchase under the existing asset purchase programme (APP) were also eligible under the PEPP, and the eligibility requirements were waived for securities issued by the Greek Government until the Hellenic Republic was upgraded to investment grade, (i.e. Credit Quality Step 3 in the Eurosystem's harmonised rating scale) by an external credit assessment institution (ECAI) accepted within the Eurosystem credit assessment framework.
In addition, the eligibility of non-financial commercial paper under the corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP) was expanded to include securities with a remaining maturity of at least 28 days. These securities could be purchased under both the CSPP and the PEPP. Previously, only commercial paper with a remaining maturity of at least six months had been eligible for purchase under the CSPP. The residual maturity of public sector securities eligible for purchase under the PEPP ranged from 70 days to a maximum of 30 years and 364 days.
For the purchases of public sector securities under the PEPP, the benchmark allocation across jurisdictions was the Eurosystem capital key of the national central banks. At the same time, purchases were conducted in a flexible manner on the basis of market conditions and with a view to preventing a tightening of financing conditions that was inconsistent with countering the downward impact of the pandemic on the projected path of inflation. The flexibility of purchases over time, and across asset classes and jurisdictions supported the smooth transmission of monetary policy.
On 16 December 2021 the Governing Council decided to discontinue net asset purchases under the PEPP at the end of March 2022. At the same time, the Governing Council decided that the maturing principal payments from securities purchased under the PEPP would be reinvested until at least the end of 2024, and that the future roll-off of the PEPP portfolio would be managed to avoid interference with the appropriate monetary stance.
On 14 December 2023 the Governing Council announced that it intended to continue to reinvest, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the PEPP during the first half of 2024 and to reduce the PEPP portfolio by €7.5 billion per month on average over the second half of 2024. The Governing Council discontinued reinvestments under the PEPP at the end of 2024, having previously announced its intention to do so on 14 December 2023 and again on 12 December 2024.
Weekly changes are reported below and in the Eurosystem weekly financial statement. Full historical data are available in the Statistics section of the ECB's website under Daily liquidity conditions.
Securities purchased under the monetary policy portfolios are made available for securities lending to support market liquidity and collateral availability in the market.
| EUR millions | 1,608,716 |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 January 2025 |
| * Updated weekly, at amortised cost | |
| Book value as at end-December 2024 (EUR millions) | Cumulative net purchases as at end-November 2024 | Monthly net purchases in December 2024 | Cumulative net purchases* (EUR millions) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PEPP | 1,676,209 | -7,540 | 1,668,669 | ||
| * Cumulative monthly net purchases figures represent the difference between the acquisition cost of all purchase operations and the redeemed nominal amounts. | |||||
| Note: Figures may not add up due to rounding. Figures are preliminary and may be subject to revision. The monthly purchase volumes are reported on a settlement basis and net of redemptions. | |||||
| EUR millions | GOV | CORP | COV | ABS | PEPP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 24 | 9,961 | 291 | 18 | 0 | 10,270 |
| Jan 25 | 12,352 | 133 | 66 | 0 | 12,552 |
| Feb 25 | 20,409 | 79 | 116 | 0 | 20,604 |
| Mar 25 | 23,970 | 479 | 14 | 0 | 24,462 |
| Apr 25 | 16,277 | 1,062 | 355 | 0 | 17,694 |
| May 25 | 13,797 | 389 | 122 | 0 | 14,307 |
| Jun 25 | 15,533 | 292 | 45 | 0 | 15,871 |
| Jul 25 | 15,186 | 107 | 17 | 0 | 15,310 |
| Aug 25 | 8,994 | 79 | 0 | 0 | 9,073 |
| Sep 25 | 7,864 | 452 | 26 | 0 | 8,342 |
| Oct 25 | 17,496 | 149 | 51 | 0 | 17,696 |
| Nov 25 | 12,906 | 127 | 13 | 0 | 13,046 |
| Dec 25 | 5,583 | 305 | 7 | 0 | 5,895 |
| Jan 26 | 6,632 | 306 | 42 | 0 | 6,980 |
| Feb 26 | 23,660 | 348 | 78 | 0 | 24,086 |
| Mar 26 | 16,099 | 659 | 17 | 0 | 16,776 |
| Apr 26 | 25,857 | 287 | 10 | 0 | 26,154 |
| May 26 | 12,446 | 1,135 | 4 | 0 | 13,585 |
| Jun 26 | 10,933 | 669 | 20 | 0 | 11,622 |
| Jul 26 | 24,415 | 246 | 54 | 0 | 24,714 |
| Aug 26 | 9,220 | 437 | 56 | 0 | 9,713 |
| Sep 26 | 6,720 | 529 | 24 | 0 | 7,274 |
| Oct 26 | 10,557 | 379 | 32 | 0 | 10,969 |
| Nov 26 | 15,543 | 287 | 8 | 0 | 15,837 |
| Dec 26 | 5,670 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 5,761 |
| * Actual redemption, based on month end data. ECB estimates in italics. Figures may not add up due to rounding. Figures are preliminary and may be subject to revision. Note: Realised redemptions may differ from estimated redemptions. As of 8 January 2025, monthly PEPP redemptions will be published at an annual frequency. The redemption horizon will be 24 months. |
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The table presents the Eurosystem holdings at the end of the bimonthly period and a breakdown of the change in Eurosystem holdings.
| Changes in holdings in EUR millions | Asset-backed securities | Covered bonds | Corporate bonds | Commercial paper | Public sector securities | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holdings* as at end-Nov 2024 | 0 | 5,985 | 45,293 | 0 | 1,568,065 | 1,619,343 |
| Net purchases Dec 24 | 0 | -18 | -115 | 0 | -7,408 | -7,540 |
| Quarter-end amortisation adjustment and redemptions of coupon STRIPS | 0 | -3 | -74 | 0 | -2,855 | -2,931 |
| Holdings* as at end-Dec 2024 | 0 | 5,964 | 45,105 | 0 | 1,557,802 | 1,608,871 |
|
*End-of-period book value at amortised cost. |
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Figures may not add up due to rounding. Figures are preliminary and may be subject to revision. |
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Amortisation adjustments are made at the end of each quarter. The amortisation results from an accounting principle that implies that securities purchased at prices below face value have to be revalued upwards over time towards maturity, and revalued downwards over time if purchased at prices above face value. STRIPS are accounted for at the end of each month.
| (EUR millions) | Net purchases Dec 24 | Cumulative net purchases as at end-Dec 24* | Current WAM of public sector securities holdings under the PEPP** | WAM of eligible universe of public sector securities under the PEPP as at end-Dec 24** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 101 | 41,408 | 6.67 | 7.88 |
| Belgium | 51 | 54,874 | 5.75 | 9.52 |
| Cyprus | -161 | 2,311 | 8.20 | 8.17 |
| Germany | -1,988 | 378,477 | 6.59 | 7.42 |
| Estonia | 0 | 256 | 5.44 | 6.19 |
| Spain | 87 | 189,085 | 6.90 | 7.40 |
| Finland | 75 | 24,915 | 6.66 | 7.72 |
| France | 315 | 292,170 | 6.86 | 7.80 |
| Greece | -72 | 38,312 | 8.30 | 9.27 |
| Ireland | 15 | 25,341 | 8.28 | 8.61 |
| Italy | -5,711 | 278,221 | 7.23 | 7.01 |
| Lithuania | 5 | 3,066 | 9.00 | 7.97 |
| Luxembourg | 0 | 1,886 | 4.92 | 7.34 |
| Latvia | 2 | 1,804 | 7.37 | 6.90 |
| Malta | 0 | 587 | 9.04 | 7.29 |
| Netherlands | 471 | 77,326 | 7.11 | 9.03 |
| Portugal | 30 | 31,701 | 7.09 | 7.64 |
| Slovenia | 5 | 6,446 | 7.68 | 7.94 |
| Slovakia | 7 | 7,699 | 7.75 | 7.96 |
| Supranationals | -642 | 161,110 | 9.06 | 9.05 |
| Total | -7,408 | 1,616,998 | 7.14 | 7.78 |
| * Cumulative net purchases figures represent the difference between the acquisition cost of all purchase operations and the redeemed nominal amounts. | ||||
| ** Remaining Weighted Average Maturity (WAM) in years | ||||
| Notes: Figures may not add up due to rounding. Figures are preliminary and may
be subject to revision. The purchase volumes are reported on a settlement basis and net of redemptions. |
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| Asset class | Asset-backed securities | Covered bonds | Corporate bonds | Commercial paper | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market | Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary |
| EUR mil. * | 0 | 0 | 1,299 | 4,686 | 14,176 | 31,117 | 0 | 0 |
| Share * | 0.00% | 0.00% | 21.70% | 78.30% | 31.30% | 68.70% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Date | 30-Nov-2024 | |||||||
| * End of month, at amortised cost | ||||||||