Figures from the European Central Bank show that it stepped up its programme of buying euro zone government bonds last week.
It bought €4.49 billion worth of bonds from October 13-19, up from €2.24 billion the previous week and taking the programme's overall total to €169.5 billion. Some €240m in previously purchased bonds matured last week, the ECB data also showed.
Europe is under pressure from its G20 peers to take swift, decisive action to stop the Greek debt crisis engulfing bigger euro zone states and hurting the already weak global recovery.
Italy and Spain have been seriously affected and seen their borrowing costs rise strongly over the last two months. At 6%, the Italian 10-year yield is matching levels which prompted the ECB to start buying Italian and Spanish bonds on the markets on August 8 to support the two countries' battered debt.
The ECB was seen buying 10-year Italian bonds in the market last week to counter a widening in the yield spread between Italian sovereign bonds and its German equivalent, traders said. The ECB reactivated its government bond buying programme - known as the Securities Markets Programme - in August to keep those costs in check, and to ensure its low interest rates are felt in even troubled parts of the euro zone.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said earlier this month that the central bank would not abruptly end the programme - even though the euro zone bail-out fund EFSF has been given the power to intervene in the secondary market - and would wait until financial markets stabilise. The European Commission said today it expected the ECB to keep buying bonds.
Under the bond-buying programme, the ECB and the 17 euro zone national central banks can buy government and corporate bonds from banks and other investors, but not directly from governments. It also does not give a breakdown of its purchases.
