ECB to increase flexibility of bond-buying plan after emergency meeting

Will accelerate work on anti-fragmentation tool

The European Central Bank (ECB) will increase the flexibility of its emergency bond-buying programme in order to tackle the surging borrowing costs in weaker eurozone economies and accelerate work on an “anti-fragmentation instrument”.

The ECB has said it will "apply flexibility" in reinvesting redemptions coming due in its PEPP portfolio. At the same time, it will also accelerate the current work taking place on a new anti-fragmentation instrument, which is set to tackle the risk of euro zone fragmentation. In an announcement made after its impromptu meeting today, the ECB said: "The pandemic has left lasting vulnerabilities in the euro area economy which are indeed contributing to the uneven transmission of the normalisation of our monetary policy across jurisdictions." ECB schedules emergency meeting Charle...