European Central Bank keeps key interest rates steady

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday kept key interest rates steady.

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 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.50%, respectively, the bank said.

It added: "In its recent strategy review, the Governing Council agreed a symmetric inflation target of two per cent over the medium term."

For the target of symmetric 2% inflation, the bank aims to keep interest rates at the current level or lower, the ECB said.

The bank also noted that the net purchases under the Assets Purchasing Programme (APP) will continue at a monthly pace of €20 billion ($23.58 billion).

"The Governing Council continues to expect monthly net asset purchases under the APP to run for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of its policy rates, and to end shortly before it starts raising the key ECB interest rates," it said.