Pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) - (ECB)

Pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP)

The European Central Bank (ECB’s) pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) is a non-standard monetary policy measure initiated in March 2020 to counter the serious risks to the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the outlook for the euro area posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The PEPP is a temporary asset purchase programme of private and public sector securities, which has an overall envelope of 1,850  billion. The Governing Council decided to increase the initial €750 billion envelope for the PEPP by €600 billion on 4 June 2020 and by €500 billion on 10 December 2020, to a new total of €1,850 billion.

All asset categories eligible under the Asset Purchase Programme (APP) were also eligible under the PEPP programme. 

For the purchases of public sector securities under the PEPP, the benchmark allocation across jurisdictions was the Eurosystem capital key of the national central banks. At the same time, purchases were conducted in a flexible manner on the basis of market conditions and with a view to preventing a tightening of financing conditions that was inconsistent with countering the downward impact of the pandemic on the projected path of inflation. The flexibility of purchases over time, and across asset classes and jurisdictions supported the smooth transmission of monetary policy.

Reinvestments under the PEPP were fully discontinued at the end of 2024 (the last trading day for PEPP purchases was 17 December 2024 in anticipation of significantly lower market liquidity towards the end of the year).

• Decision ECB/2020/17 of 24 March 2020
• Press release announcing the €750 billion pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP)
• The ECB Blog - Christine Lagarde: Our Response to the Coronavirus
• PEPP - Questions & Answers