On 12 March, the ECB had already expanded the size of its long-established asset purchase programme (APP) with an additional EUR 120 billion allocated for the rest of 2020.
The 18 March launch of the PEPP was in recognition that a temporary and flexible programme was better suited to respond to the exceptional nature of the pandemic shock, rather than just relying on a mechanical expansion of the APP. [4] See also Lane, P.R. (2020), “The market stabilisation role of the pandemic emergency purchase programme”, The ECB Blog, 22 June.