At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB took the following monetary policy decisions: (1) 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 their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases. (2) As regards non-standard monetary policy measures, purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) will continue at the current ... (full story)

Market players highlighted October as a turning point for the European Central Bank. They have expected nothing less than details on how the central bank will start reducing its monetary stimulus in the euro zone. In particular, money managers want to know by how much the ECB will reduce its monthly purchases of government bonds and when it will start doing so. Announcing an exit from monetary stimulus is difficult for the central bank, as inflation remains below its target of "close but below 2 percent." There's also internal differences within the bank. Some members believe that it is still too early to relax the ... (full story)