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 the net asset purchases, at the current monthly pace of €60 billion, are intended to run until the ... (full story)

The European Central Bank (ECB) held interest rates steady Thursday, amid speculation that the bank will start to scale back its ultra-loose monetary policy in the fall. Many market participants expect that improved economic growth in the euro zone will cause a shift away from years of easy money, underlined by interest rates being held at 0.00 percent for seventeen consecutive months. The lack of movement on Thursday was widely anticipated, but ECB President Mario Draghi will have a thin line to tread in a press conference later in the session. He is expected to speak about this anticipated policy shift from the ... (full story)