In its recent strategy review, the Governing Council agreed a symmetric inflation target of two per cent over the medium term. The key ECB interest rates have been close to their lower bound for some time and the medium-term outlook for inflation is still well below the Governing Council’s target. In these conditions, the Governing Council today revised its forward guidance on interest rates. It did so to underline its commitment to maintain a persistently accommodative monetary policy stance to meet its inflation target. In support of its symmetric two per cent inflation target and in line with its monetary policy strategy, the Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until tweet at 7:46am: *ECB: PEPP TO RUN SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER THAN AT START OF YEAR tweet at 7:46am: ECB statement comparison https://t.co/v9YkAMsFLZ tweet at 7:46am: ECB: AFTER CONFIRMATION OF ITS JUNE ASSESSMENT OF FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND INFLATION FORECAST, THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK (ECB) EXPECTS PURCHASES UNDER THE PANDEMIC EMERGENCY PURCHASE PROGRAMME (PEPP) TO BE MUCH HIGHER THAN DURING THE CURRENT QUARTER.European Central Bank holds interest rates but tweaks guidance The European Central Bank on Thursday held monetary policy steady, but tweaked its guidance to reflect its recently-hiked inflation target. The ECB has committed to purchasing 1.85 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) of bonds until March 2022 as part of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP), and policymakers voted to keep this stimulus on the table for the time being. Interest rates were also left unchanged, with the rate on the main deposit facility remaining at -0.5%, the benchmark refinancing rate at 0% and the marginal lending facility at 0.25%. The central bank’s Governing Council revised its forward guidance on interest rates, having upgraded its inflation target to a symmetric 2% over the medium term at its recent strategy review.

tweet at 8:36am: ECB’s Lagarde: Inflation Pick Up Expected To Be Temporary Need To Preserve Favourable Financing Conditions tweet at 8:37am: LAGARDE SAYS DELTA VARIANT COULD DAMPEN RECOVERY IN SERVICES tweet at 8:40am: ECB'S PRESIDENT LAGARDE: BY THE START OF NEXT YEAR, INFLATION IS LIKELY TO FALL ONCE MORE. tweet at 8:40am: * #ECB LAGARDE: EXPECT ACTIVITY TO RETURN TO PRE-CRISIS LEVEL IN 1Q *LAGARDE: AMBITIOUS, COORDINATED, TARGETED FISCAL AID NEEDED

tweet at 8:59am: ECB'S PRESIDENT LAGARDE: WE ARE STILL IN A MOMENT OF CRISIS tweet at 9:05am: MORE ECB'S LAGARDE: REVISION OF FORWARD GUIDANCE 'LIMITED TO INTEREST RATES' #europeancentralbank #ecb #eurozoneeconomy #christinelagardeChristine Lagarde, Luis de Guindos: Monetary policy statement Good afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference. At today’s meeting, the Governing Council focused on two main topics: first, the implications of our strategy review for our forward guidance on the key ECB interest rates; and, second, our assessment of the economy and our pandemic measures. In our recent strategy review, we agreed a symmetric inflation target of two per cent over the medium term. Our policy rates have been close to their lower bound for some time and the medium-term outlook for inflation is still well below our target. In these conditions, the Governing Council today revised its forward guidance on interest rates. We did so to underline our commitment to maintain a persistently accommodative monetary policy stance to meet our inflation target. tweet at 9:16am: PEPP pace will be guided by joint assessment relative to the ECB's policy goals ECB attentive to all components of inflation Rates are at the effective lower bound Does not want to summarise the arguments of GC members that disagreed with calibration of guidance tweet at 9:17am: ECB’s Lagarde: Very Small Number Of Rate Setters Opposed New Guidance