The Bundesbank said yesterday its policy making council left the German discount and Lombard rates unchanged after its regular meeting.

The German discount rate stays at 2.50 per cent and the Lombard emergency financing rate at 4.50 per cent. The central bank's main money market rate, the securities repurchase or repo-rate, remains at 3.30 per cent.

Market expectations in advance of the meeting had centred on the repo rate, which some economists had said could be lowered at yesterday's meeting.

The rate news left share prices largely unmoved but there was some disappointment among bond dealers who had been looking for a signal that German interest rates are headed lower.