The European Central Bank (ECB) has started purchasing corporate bonds today with the hope of stimulating business activity across the Eurozone and providing a solution to the record low inflation that currently exists.

The ECB is aiming to convince firms to borrow and spend by adding investment-grade euro credit to its €1.74 trillion of asset purchases.

The corporate sector purchase programme was announced by ECB president Mario Draghi (pictured) in March.

The bonds have a minimum remaining maturity of six months and maximum of 30 years, though only approximately 9% of the bonds mature over 10 years from now. The average maturation will likely be less than five years.

Bonds are available in primary and secondary markets from six major central banks (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain), with analysts predicting that the ECB could buy between €5 - €10 billion per month depending on the level of new issuances.