The second thing to note is that some selling of euro area bonds by non-residents is a mechanical feature of the ECB’s asset purchase programme. What I mean by that is that foreign investors are holding a relatively large share of outstanding euro area government bonds.
For example, when we started the APP in March 2015, non-euro area investors were holding nearly 75% of German Bunds with maturities of seven to ten years. So it should not come as a surprise that around 45% of our purchases of government bonds have been with investors resident outside the euro area.