European Central Bank leaves interest rates unchanged

European
Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi testifies before the
European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in
Brussels, Belgium, February 15, 2016.
REUTERS/Yves Herman

• European Central Bank leaves monetary policy
  entirely unchanged at the September meeting of its governing
  council.
• Base deposit rate stays at -0.4%, and will remain there
  until at least next summer, the ECB said.
• It continues to expect to end its quantitative easing
  programme by the end of 2018.

The European Central Bank left its monetary policy entirely
unchanged at the September meeting of its governing council
on Thursday, as had been expected.

That means a base deposit rate of -0.4%, and a quantitative
easing program of €30 billion per month — a figure that will be
reduced to 15 billion euros per month from the end of September
as the bank winds down its bond buying.

The ECB will cease purchasing bonds from the end of 2018,
subject to “incoming data confirming the medium-term
inflation outlook” for the eurozone.

Interest rates in the eurozone will stay at their present
level until “
at least through the summer of 2019,”
the ECB added.

The ECB’s announcement comes on a busy day for global
central banks, with the
Bank of England leaving its policies unchanged, and
Turkey’s central bank defying President Erdogan to raise rates to
24%.

More follows …