The Eurosystem corporate sector purchase programme and its effect on the external financing of Spanish non-financial corporations

Abstract

The Eurosystem’s corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP) has helped to reduce the cost of financing of Spanish non-financial corporations through debt securities. This effect is apparent not only for bonds eligible under the programme, but also extends to other assets, such as the fixed-income securities issued by non-financial corporations with credit ratings below investment grade and, to a lesser extent, to those issued by financial institutions. The progressive decrease in debt instrument yields has led to an increase in primary market activity and to the appearance of new non-financial issuer firms, generally smaller than those already present in these markets. All these effects are in line with those observed in other euro area countries