FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ― The European Central Bank said Monday that it made no purchases of government bonds last week as it put on hold its controversial program to lower borrowing costs for indebted countries.

The purchases had already dwindled to a negligible 59 million euros ($78 million) the week before that.

The bank has been buying bonds from other investors in the secondary market in an effort to push down borrowing costs, particularly for Italy and Spain, which are under pressure from the eurozone debt crisis.

But it had reined in its purchases as a new program of large-scale cheap credit for banks helped reduce strains in the financial system.

The bond purchase program was launched in May, 2010 in a largely unsuccessful attempt to bring down borrowing costs for Greece. It was later put on hold for months from March, 2011 until August, when the eurozone crisis worsened and borrowing costs rose for indebted countries due to default fears.

Since August the ECB had used the program as a tool to lower borrowing costs that threatened to drive Italy and Spain to default, since buying bonds drives up their prices while their interest yield moves in the opposite direction.

The central bank for the 17 countries that use the euro had eased off on purchases after deploying a larger-scale program to offer cheap, long-term credit to banks. Some of those banks in turn used the money to buy higher-yielding government bonds, easing governments’ access to affordable credit without violating the legal ban on the bank financing governments. A first infusion of 489 billion euros taken by 523 banks has led to lower borrowing costs; a second round is slated for Feb. 29.

The bond purchases were criticized by some as an inappropriate bailout effort by the ECB. Because of the purchases, the ECB has also had to take measures to avoid taking losses on its Greek bonds as the government in Athens negotiates a debt reduction with creditors. The ECB is swapping its Greek bonds for new ones that are not supposed to be subject to the reduction.