Gross PEPP purchases registered their second highest weekly total in the latest ECB QE figures, with the central bank’s combined purchases across APP and PEPP, as well as gross CBPP3, holding steady. The ECB has confirmed that it will release a breakdown of PEPP buying on Tuesday.

According to data released by the European Central Bank relating to settled and outstanding purchases under its various programmes, the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) grew €30.072bn in the week to last Friday, versus €28.878bn the previous week, with gross purchases coming in at €30.272bn given €0.2bn of redemptions announced yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon.

The €30.272bn of gross purchases is the second highest under PEPP, behind a record QE week two weeks previously, but higher – albeit marginally – than even the first full week of PEPP.

Gross APP purchases were €12.977bn, bringing aggregate Eurosystem purchases across the two programmes to €43.249bn, down €980m from €44.229bn the previous week. The gross APP purchases were down €2.374bn from €15.351bn the previous week, while the net APP increase of €11.377bn was down €3.074bn from €14.451bn, with redemptions coming in at around €1.600bn versus €900m the previous week.

For the third consecutive week, gross CBPP3 purchases remained around €1bn, falling marginally, by €2m, from €1.030bn to €1.028bn, and again no covered bonds in the CBPP3 portfolio matured. €500m of CBPP3-eligible supply settled last week, compared with no settlements for the previous week.

Maureen Schuller, head financials research at ING, compared the CBPP3 purchases for the past three weeks with the “lively” purchase pattern of 2016 and 2017 for a typical week with €0.5bn of primary settlements.

The extent of any covered bond buying under PEPP is as yet unknown, but the ECB has confirmed it will next Tuesday release a first monthly breakdown of purchases under the programme alongside and as granular as the monthly APP breakdown.