ECB bond plans liven up corporate debt market

Paris

THE European Central Bank's plan to buy corporate bonds to help the eurozone economy is boosting the private-sector debt market which promptly responded with a new record-sized company bond.

With interest rates near or below zero and few other monetary policy tools left in its arsenal, the ECB announced earlier this month that it would begin buying non-bank corporate bonds in addition to the government bonds it has been purchasing to stimulate the economy.