t today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB took the following monetary policy decisions: (1) The conditions on the targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) have been further eased. Specifically, the Governing Council decided to reduce the interest rate on TLTRO III operations during the period from June 2020 to June 2021 to 50 basis points below the average interest rate on the Eurosystem’s main refinancing operations prevailing over the same period. Moreover, for counterparties whose eligible net lending reaches the lending performance threshold, the interest rate over the period from June ... (full story)

he European Central Bank (ECB) opted to keep its main interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as the euro zone faces a deep economic crisis. The decision came on the same day that data revealed the 19-member region’s economy contracted by 3.8% in the first quarter — the lowest reading since records began in 1995 — as the coronavirus pandemic hit business activity in the region hard. The ECB has already deployed a massive stimulus package to mitigate some of the economic shock. In March, the central bank started purchasing governments bonds as part of a 750-billion-euro ($813 billion) package and has reduced costs for ... (full story)