European Central Bank Governing Council member Luc Coene said the central bank could expand its stimulus measures to purchasing instruments other than covered bonds and asset-backed securities, but there is no concrete proposal on corporate bonds, currently.
In an interview published in Belgian dailies L'Echo and De Tijd, Coene said policymakers are discussing the expansion of the central bank's bond purchase programme to other instruments such as corporate bonds.
"But there is no concrete proposal on the table right now", Coene, who heads the National Bank of Belgium, said.
Yesterday, Reuters reported, citing unidentified sources, that the European Central Bank is considering buying corporate bonds on the secondary market and may decide on the same as early as December with an aim to start purchasing early next year.
Coene said that it was too early to say whether the ECB would take further stimulus measures. Policymakers have discussed it seriously, but any such move will be dependent on the inflation and economic activity figures to be published in coming weeks, he added.
Regarding the purchase of corporate bonds, Coene said policymakers have not discussed that seriously, but it was mentioned by some.
By limiting purchases to covered bonds and asset-backed securities, the ECB could end up paying very high prices to achieve its target volume, the policymaker pointed out. Adding corporate bonds to the list of purchases will help to avoid this, he said.
On Monday, the ECB started buying covered bonds as per the bank's plan announced last month. The bank plans to purchase asset-backed securities later this year.
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