The ECB: post-Pepp steps

Send us Fan MailThe ECB’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (Pepp) is set to end in March. It has been spectacularly successful in suppressing European government bond spreads at a time when those sovereigns have had to raise more money than ever to fund their way out of the pandemic. Naturally, the looming deadline has market players worried about what will happen to the yields of countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece. The ECB this week appeared to leak a proposal for what comes next. On the podcast this week, we discuss the merits not just of that plan but of the timing of the messaging, which came right in the middle of a volatile period for bond markets and rising yields. Is the message now more important than the policy?Keeping with European sovereigns and the pandemic, we also discuss the latest move in Poland’s ruck with the EU over the precedence of the rule of law and whether the country will see any of the billions in EU funding it is hoping for and what that might mean for bond markets.