Banks, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Latvia

In January this year, the Bank of Latvia bought securities for EUR 80.475 million.

The Latvian central bank bought up securities for EUR 1.808 billion in 2015, for EUR 2.549 billion in 2016 and for EUR 2.363 billion in 2017 under the ECB program.

The securities purchase program was launched in March 2015 pursuing the Eurosystem's (comprising the ECB and national central banks of the euro area) objective of keeping medium-term inflation rates below, but close to, 2%. The expanded assets purchase program originally encompassed three programs: the PSPP, CBPP3 (the covered bond purchase program) and ABSPP (the asset-backed securities purchase program).

Under the ECB program, the Bank of Latvia, just like the central banks of all other eurozone countries, is expected to buy up local government bonds and supranational securities.