8  9  Table 2: Large-scale asset purchases by type (as % of GDP)  Type of assets purchased  Government bonds1 Euro area  Mortgagebacked securities2 2  Corporate bonds  Equities  20 1 (27) Japan 65 1 5 (44) Sweden 7 (41) United Kingdom 27 1 (33) United States 15 14 (20) 1 Numbers in parentheses are the maximum share of government bonds outstanding that the central bank held.
2 The ECB purchased covered bonds; the Fed purchased RMBS and agency debt. Sources: BIS (2019), Unconventional monetary policy issues: a cross-country analysis, CGFS Papers, No 63; and Gagnon and Sack (2018), QE: A User's Guide, Peterson Institute Policy Brief, PB18-19. The key outcomes were that interest rates on government bonds and corporate debt instruments did decline, stimulating spending.