ECB snaps up corporate bonds to boost eurozone

Berlin

THE European Central Bank on Wednesday took the unprecedented step of buying corporate bonds, its latest weapon in a desperate battle to kick-start sluggish growth and inflation in the eurozone.

Having already slashed interest rates to below zero and pumped massive amounts of cash into financial markets, it started to directly finance businesses by buying their debt in the bond market.

In the first major trades, the ECB bought millions of euros worth of bonds of French power company Engie and Spain's Telefonica, reported the Bloomberg financial news wire, citing unnamed market players.

Other purchases were of debt issued by brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, German engine…