European Central Bank leaves policy unchanged

The European Central Bank Governing Council decided to leave key interest rates unchanged at today’s meeting.

The ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively. 

“The Governing Council continues to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases”, said the ECB in a statement. 

The ECB said that monthly asset purchases of €80 billion are intended to run until the end of March 2017, or beyond, if necessary, and “in any case until it sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim.”

Attention now turns to the President of the ECB, Mario Draghi, who will comment on the considerations underlying these decisions at a press conference starting at 12:30 GMT today.