FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The European Central Bank has again opted not to resume its program of buying up bonds of eurozone nations, data suggested Monday, as speculation mounted that the ECB might do so again soon.

According to data published on the bank’s website, it did not buy any sovereign bonds last week for the 20th week in a row.

The ECB launched its bond-buying blitz under the Securities Market Program in 2010 to help debt-wracked eurozone countries that were finding it difficult to drum up financing in capital markets.

But the SMP has lain dormant since February following the ECB’s moves to pump more than one trillion euros ($1.22 trillion) into the banking system via three-year funding operations in December and February.

However, yields on Spanish and Italian government bonds jumped last week to levels viewed as unsustainable as investors fretted about the two countries’ commitment to getting their public finances in order. The yields have fallen back since then, following remarks by ECB president Mario Draghi on Thursday.

Draghi triggered a frenzy of speculation on the financial markets that the central bank was readying to reboot the program when he pledged that the ECB was “ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.” The ECB’s governing council is to hold it regular monthly meeting this coming Thursday.


and observers believe Draghi could announce a revival of the bond purchases then. SMP was controversial from the start, with critics saying the ECB was overstepping its mandate in buying up sovereign bonds on the secondary market.

Between January and August 2011, the purchases dried up, but the ECB resumed the program when renewed strains pushed Italian and Spanish borrowing rates to unsustainable levels.

The ECB has so far accumulated 211.5 billion euros in bonds from Greece Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain as part of the program.

At one point, purchases reached as much as 22 billion euros in a single week.