Banks, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Investments

The value of the central bank's asset purchase portfolio was 4.49 billion euros at the end of the month, it stands on the website of the Bank of Estonia. The cumulative value of the bonds bought by the central bank under the program is 4.56 billion euros.

The portfolio contains 61 million euros' worth of bonds of the Estonian electricity and gas transmission system operator Elering, which have not been among the purchases made by the central bank since May 2016. As of June last year, six central banks started acquiring corporate bonds on behalf of all euro area central banks.

Of Estonian companies, Elering and Eesti Energia meet the terms of the ECB asset purchase program and their bonds are now bought by the central bank of Finland. In addition corporate bonds are being bought by the central banks of Belgium, Germany, Spain, France and Italy.

The central bank of Finland has been buying Elering and Eesti Energia bonds since June 2016 but, just like other euro area central banks, it does not publish data about its bond purchases in a breakdown by issuer. The revenue and risks related to the purchase of companies' bonds are distributed between all eurozone central banks according to the ECB's capital key, of which the share of the Bank of Estonia is 0.274%.

The expanded asset purchase program started in March 2015, with central banks of the eurozone buying 60 billion euros' worth of assets every month. The purchases were to continue until at least September 2016 and in any case go on until a lasting correction in inflation is apparent in line with the aim of the ECB of achieving inflation rates below but close to 2% over the medium term.

ECB in December 2015 decided to extend the asset purchase program at least until December 2017 and decrease the volume of the asset purchase program to 60 billion euros a month starting April. In addition to state bonds, the central bank can now buy also other public sector bonds, which have been issued by local or regional governments.

In April 2016 a decision of the ECB took effect to expand the program to up to 80 billion euros' worth of bonds a month and to include in the program bonds of investment grade companies, with the exception of commercial banks.

ECB in December 2016 decided to extend the asset purchase program at least until December 2017 and decrease the volume of the asset purchase program to 60 billion euros a month starting April.