ECB unexpectedly maintains its main refinancing rate at 0.00%

The European Central Bank (ECB) left its main refinancing rate unchanged at 0.00 percent on Thursday, while most analysts expected a cut.

Its interest rate on the marginal lending facility was also left unchanged at 0.25%, while the interest rate on the deposit facility was cut by 10 basis points to -0.50%..

In its policy statement, the ECB noted the Governing Council expects its key interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until it has seen the inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to, but below, 2% within its projection horizon, and such convergence has been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics.

In addition, the European regulator also announced that net purchases would be restarted under the Governing Council’s asset purchase programme (APP) at a monthly pace of EUR20 billion as from 1 November. According to the Bank, these purchases would run for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of its policy rates, and would end shortly before it starts raising the key ECB interest rates.

The ECB also said that the modalities of the new series of quarterly targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) would be changed to preserve favorable bank lending conditions, ensure the smooth transmission of monetary policy and further support the accommodative stance of monetary policy.