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“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”> FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank says it spent euro6.65 billion ($9.64 billion) last week purchasing government bonds in an attempt to keep the continent’s debt crisis from pushing Italy and Spain into financial collapse.
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“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”> The purchases announced on the bank’s Twitter feed compare to euro14.3 billion last week and euro22 billion the week before.
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“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”> The purchases raise bond prices and drive down the interest yields on those bonds. Rising interest rates pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal into needing bailout loans.
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“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”> Eurozone officials are trying to keep such troubles from spreading to Italy and Spain, which are considered too large to bail out.
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“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”> The central bank says it expects the eurozone bailout fund to take over the purchases as soon as national parliaments agree on that in coming weeks.
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