The ECB announced that it will hold the benchmark interest rate at the historic low of 0.25%. This is expected by most, though some have been expecting the bank to take another step toward looser monetary policy. President Mario Draghi made the ECB’s policy statement and fielded questions from the media regarding the bank’s monetary policy during his press conference. He summed up policy expectation by saying, “We don’t exclude further monetary easing”. He also noted that this readiness to loosen policy is based on deflationary risk. The EUR/USD whipped up and down after the ECB statement and during the first half of ... (full story)