ECB preparing for bond program next week, says Coeuré

(ANSA) - Rome, January 16 - The European Central Bank is preparing to outline a massive sovereign bond purchase program, known as quantitative easing, as early as its next regular meeting on Thursday, an ECB official was quoted as saying on Friday to the French newspaper Liberation. The ECB is studying QE experiences in the United States and Britain, said Benoît Coeuré, "to determine the amount of bonds to buy". The aim is to restore inflation, which is now hovering near zero in parts of the eurozone, to the bank's 2% target.