The European Central Bank has left eurozone interest rates unchanged, as widely expected.
In a short statement, the ECB said its governing council had decided at today’s meeting in Luxembourg that 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 1.00 per cent, 1.75 per cent and 0.25 per cent respectively.
ECB president Jean Claude Trichet said euro-zone activity would likely remain weak for the rest of the year and that stabilisation in 2010 would be followed by a recovery.
The ECB had widely been expected to keep euro zone interest rates unchanged today, to say it sees faint signs of economic recovery, and to fill in some of the missing details of its unorthodox plan to buy bonds.
The bank is likely to refrain from any new policy steps so it can take stock of its unconventional measures to tackle the euro zone recession -- last week's injection of almost half a trillion euros of ultra-cheap funding into money markets, and the soon-to-be-launched programme to buy 60 billion euros' worth of mortgage and public debt-backed bonds.
Policymakers gathered in Luxembourg this month for one of the council's two meetings a year away from Frankfurt.
Analysts will scour Mr Trichet's comments on the ECB's latest view of the economic situation. As well as hints on the likely timing of a credible recovery and interest rate moves, focus will also be on any more details of the ECB's purchases of covered bonds, which are due to start this month.
Reuters