ECB leaves rates unchanged as focus shifts to inflation targets

The European Central Bank left interest rates at record lows, shifting the focus to president Mario Draghi's press conference for clues on whether he sees a need to step up stimulus.

The 25-member governing council kept the main refinancing rate at 0.05 percent at its meeting in Frankfurt on Thursday.

The deposit rate and the marginal lending rate stayed at minus 0.2 per cent, and 0.3 per cent, respectively. Six months after the ECB started €1.1 trillion quantitative-easing scheme, weaker commodity prices, a rout in global equities and China’s slowdown are stoking concerns that it will struggle to revive consumer prices.

Frankfurt is likely to cut its inflation forecasts but hold back from concrete policy action, promising only to beef up its bond-buying programme if prospects weaken further.

Oil prices are down 35 per cent since May, iron ore is near an all-time low, the euro has unexpectedly firmed and Chinese growth, already a worry for the ECB in July, is slowing sharply.

One of the bank’s favoured gauges of inflation expectations, the five-year, five-year euro zone breakeven forward, has fallen below 1.7 per cent from 1.85 per cent in July.

The International Monetary Fund argued on Thursday that the ECB should consider extending QE, citing a rise in downside risks to the global economy due to a combination of threats, including China’s slowdown and rising market volatility.