LONDON – The European Central Bank left monetary policy on hold at the March meeting of its Governing Council on Thursday, with President Mario Draghi remaining dovish in tone during a press conference after the release.
The bank announced that all of its key interest rates, as well as the scale of its quantitative easing programme, remained unchanged after the conclusion of the meeting.
That means the ECB’s base interest rate stays at 0%, while its deposit rate is -0.4%.
Its current quantitative easing programme is set at €80 billion per month and is scheduled to be extended until December, but at a decreased rate of €60 billion. That decision was announced at the final meeting of 2016 in December.
“A very substantial degree of accommodation still needed for underlying inflation pressures to build up and support headline inflation,” Draghi told reporters during his conference.
“If the outlook becomes less favourable, we stand ready to increase our asset purchase programme in terms of size and/or duration,” he added, noting that the bank believes risks to growth remain “tilted to the downside.”
Draghi said that the ECB will continue to “look through” changes in headline inflation – which hit 2% in February – in favour of looking at core inflation, which remains subdued.
The president once again took aim at European governments, saying that structural reforms are still needed.
“There are signs of somewhat accelerating global recovery and increasing global trade, however economic growth is expected to dampened by a sluggish implementation of structural reforms,” he said.
Het bericht Draghi stays dovish as ECB leaves monetary policy on hold verscheen eerst op Business Insider.