ECB stands steady with rates in an advance of assesment

The ECB has left it’s main interest rate unchanged this morning and it now stands at a record low of 0.75 %. The move was made as the bank assesses the economic outlook and waits for a bailout trigger to use its new bond-purchase programme.

The ECB wants to transmit its low interest rates to all corners of the euro zone – where market interest rates vary greatly – and aims to do so by pushing down sovereign bond yields with its new bond-buy programme.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi has said that the struggling euro area should start growing again later this year – but warned that the region has yet to reach a turning point in its struggle with recession and too much debt.

Draghi said at today’s ECB news conference that some indicators “have broadly stabilised” although at low levels and financial markets have steadied.

He said “economic activity should gradually recover” later this year. But he said that “to define a turning point you need a lot of things beside financial market stabilisation.”

The ECB left its main rate on hold for the sixth month running. It also left the interest rate on its deposit facility at 0.0 percent and held its marginal lending facility – or emergency borrowing rate – at 1.50 percent.