The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) announced in September 2014 that the central bank plans to engage in a form of quantitative easing (QE) through the purchase of private sector credit, including asset-backed securities and covered bonds, in addition to a new cut in interest rates. In March 2015, ECB started the QE programme. The development of the 10 year government bond yield of the Euro area and of Italy is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. 10 year government bond yield (%) monthly data A Euro area + Italy 6" 6" 6\" 0\"