<\/p>\n
At its meeting earlier today, Thursday, April 30, the ECB decided to maintain its three key interest rates at their current levels: the deposit rate at 2%, the main refinancing operation rate at 2.15%, and the lending facility rate at 2.40%. This marks the seventh consecutive meeting where the ECB has held its rates steady.<\/p>\n
In its policy statement, the ECB said the Governing Council remains committed to ensuring that inflation remains at the 2% target over the medium term, despite heightened uncertainty due to the conflict in the Middle East, rising energy prices, and the risks of higher inflation and slower economic growth.<\/p>\n
The Governing Council remains well-positioned to address the current uncertainty. The euro area entered this period of higher energy prices with inflation close to the 2% target, but the long-term inflation outlook remains stable, although short-term inflation expectations have risen significantly.<\/p>\n
The Governing Council will continue to monitor the situation closely and will adopt a data-driven approach, making decisions at each meeting to determine the appropriate monetary policy stance.<\/p>\n
The ECB’s asset purchase program (AP) and pandemic emergency purchase program (PEPP) are declining at a measured and expected pace as the European system has stopped reinvesting capital payments from maturing securities.<\/p>\n
Markets are awaiting the ECB president’s comments and question-and-answer session with journalists at the press conference, which is expected to begin in approximately 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At its meeting earlier today, Thursday, April 30, the ECB decided to maintain its three key interest rates at their current levels: the deposit rate at 2%, the main refinancing operation rate at 2.15%, and the lending facility rate at 2.40%. This marks the seventh consecutive meeting where the ECB has held its rates steady. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currency-markets"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n