The European Central Bank (ECB) purchased €51.6 billion of public and private debt under its quantitative-easing program in August, compared to €61.3 billion in July.

ECB'S asset buying programme is intended to run to September 2016.

The ECB bought €42.8 billion of government and agency bonds in July, €7.5 billion of covered bonds, and €1.3 billion of asset-backed securities.

The central purchased €11.9 billion of government and agency bonds, €1.0 billion of covered bonds, and €382 million of asset-backed securities last week.