In announcing our yield target, the Bank indicated that we are prepared to buy bonds in the secondary market in whatever quantity was needed to achieve the target. To date, overall bond purchases have totalled around $ billion, with most of these bonds bought in March and April.
According to Eurostat’s flash estimate, euro area annual HICP inflation was 1.4% in March 2019, after 1.5% in February, reflecting mainly a decline in food, services and non-energy industrial goods price inflation. On the basis of current futures prices for oil, headline inflation is likely to decline over the coming months.