Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
WASHINGTON DC, 16th Dec. European Central Bank on Friday has decided to leave its key interest rates unchanged, in a press statement issued.
According to media reports, the interest rates on the main refinancing operations, the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will all remain unchanged at 4.5 per cent, 4.75 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.
“The Governing Council is determined to ensure that inflation returns to its 2 per cent medium-term target in a timely manner,” the bank said in a statement.
“Based on its current assessment, the Governing Council considers that the key ECB interest rates are at levels that, maintained for a sufficiently long duration, will meet.”
ECB staff now revised their inflation expectations for the eurozone down to 5.4 per cent in 2023, and 2.1 per cent in 2024 as compared with their projections made in September.
The ECB cautioned that “while inflation has dropped in recent months, it is likely to pick up again temporarily in the near term,”despite the recent decline of inflation in the eurozone.
The bank expects economic growth in the eurozone to pick up from 0.6 per cent in 2023 to 0.8 per cent in 2024, it added.
Traders and institutions like Deutsche Bank expect the ECB to cut rates in 2024 as inflation in the euro zone has been dropping at a pace faster than expected and interest rates remain high.
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