European Central Bank keeps interest rates constant

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday decided to keep its three key policy interest rates unchanged in line with market expectations.

The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 4.5%, 4.75%, and 4% respectively, said a bank statement.

With the March decision, the bank has been keeping the rate constant during the last four monetary policy meetings.

The bank has started to raise policy rates in July 2022 till September 2023.

"Since the last Governing Council meeting in January, inflation has declined further," the bank noted.

Eurozone's annual consumer inflation in February fell to 2.6%, according to the latest Eurostat data.

The bank's annual inflation forecasts were at 2.3% for 2024, 2% for 2025 and 1.9% for 2026.

"Inflation has been revised down, in particular for 2024 which mainly reflects a lower contribution from energy prices," it added.