FRANKFURT – The European Central Bank is expected to unleash another blast of stimulus on Thursday to help businesses bridge the gap until the economy recovers from the pandemic - and to support governments that are ramping up spending to cushion the blow as the winter wave of the virus worsens.The bank could add a half-trillion euros or more to its existing bond purchases.
That means the central bank will vacuum up much of the new debt being issued by hard-pressed governments, lowering the risk of a new eurozone debt crisis.If the pandemic purchases are expanded as expected, and combined with a previous bond purchase program amounting to 20 billion euros ($24 billion) per month, the ECB “will continue to absorb a very large part of gross.