In an extraordinary meeting held on 18 March, the Governing Council decided to launch a new temporary Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) to counter the serious risks to the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the outlook for the euro area posed by the outbreak and the escalating diffusion of the coronavirus, COVID-19. This new programme will have an overall envelope of €750 billion. Purchases will be conducted until the end of 2020 and will include all the asset categories eligible under the existing asset purchase programme (APP).
For additional details, please see the ECB press release of 18 March 2020.
