The European Central Bank keeps interest rates unchanged
The European Central Bank (ECB) is holding interest rates steady, continuing its current policy of ultra-low rates since the Eurozone crisis.
The ECB has also announced that it will extend quantitative easing until the end of 2017, although it will taper the size of the stimulus.
The interest rate for the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility remained at 0.00 per cent, 0.25 per cent and -0.40 per cent respectively.
The last change in interest rates came in March 2016, when the Bank made further cuts in one final attempt to use traditional monetary policy tools to stimulate the Eurozone economy.
ECB president Mario Draghi has repeatedly defended the ultra-loose monetary policy, saying that it had played an integral part in Europe’s economic recovery, however fragile it remained.
Inflation has started to rise in the Eurozone towards the ECB’s target of near but below two per cent, but still remains well short at 0.6 per cent.
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