ECB to Bear Witness on Coeure Comments That Checked Bond Selloff

After the European Central Bank’s Benoit Coeure helped jolt euro-area government bond markets out of a four-week slump, data next week will show the extent to which his comments on faster purchases are being implemented.

Coeure, an Executive Board member, said on May 18 that the ECB will increase the pace of its bond buying this month and next to counter lower liquidity in July and August. The comments helped German 10-year bunds, the region’s benchmark sovereign securities, bring to an end their longest run of weekly declines since June 2012. French bonds were also little changed in the week after 10-year yields climbed to the highest level of 2015 earlier this month. Coeure said the slightly higher purchase volume would be “unrelated to the recent episode of market volatility.”