As part of its “enhanced credit support”, in 2009, the Eurosystem also launched a programme of outright purchases, for an amount of € billion, in the covered bond market, a very important market in Europe and a primary source of financing for banks. 3.
Secondly, the world remains plagued by geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East and other parts of the world. Partly as a result of these tensions, combined with inflationary concerns starting to increase, the gold price has recently surpassed a series of 25-year highs, trading above USD730 per fine ounce early in May 2006 before retracing to just below USD700.