At today’s meeting the Governing Council of 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 expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases. Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the Governing Council confirms that from January 2018 it intends to continue to make net asset purchases under the asset purchase ... (full story)

As expected, there was little surprise in the ECB monetary policy decision, which kept all three key ECB rates unchanged, and which announced that rates will "remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases." As it unveiled before, QE will run at €30BN per month from January 2018 until the end of September “or beyond, if necessary, and in case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim.” The ECB also noted it can extend QE size or duration if needed. The central bank repeated ... (full story)