ECB Stays on Hold; Lagarde Set to Unveil Policy Review

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com - The European Central Bank left its monetary policy on hold Thursday, as widely expected, with its deposit rate staying at -0.5%, the main refinancing rate at 0% and asset purchases at 20 billion euros ($22 billion) a month.

At 07:45 AM ET (1245 GMT), EUR/USD traded at 1.1090, compared with 1.1091 before the announcement, while EUR/GBP was unchanged at 0.8449. The pan-eurozone index, the Euro Stoxx 50 traded at 3760.40, compared with 3758.05.

Attention will now turn to the ECB’s press conference at 08:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), with President Christine Lagarde set to launch a broad review of policy that is likely to last a year and see her redefine the central bank's main goal and how to achieve it.

The main objective of the ECB is to maintain price stability in the euro area, but inflation has been consistently below the central bank’s target range, defined under the current strategy as a consumer price index of "close to, but below, 2%" over the medium term.

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