The European Central Bank left the key Minimum Bid Rate unchanged at 1%. Most had expected no change. This is bad news for the European economies, which are deteriorating quite fast.
EUR/USD is almost unchanged. It initially ticked lower and then moved up. Update: Live blog is here.
This time, there wasn’t a 100% consensus towards the decision. Given many deteriorating indicators, the credit crunch that followed the Greek elections and a drop in inflation, also a rate cut of 0.25% was not ruled out by many.
1% is the lowest rate that the ECB had during the crisis. In 2011, the former president of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet, raised the rates twice. Mario Draghi reversed these two hikes, and also introduced the two Long Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs) – a move that temporarily kept Europe away from the abyss.
Stay tuned for a live blog of the press conference. Mario Draghi is expected to explain the decisions and will likely pass the ball to the court of the politicians, which should find a solution for the worsening debt crisis, now focusing on Spanish banks.
Some hope that Germany would be flexible on eurobonds or a banking union helped push the euro higher. However, the ECB is the most resourceful factor out there, and a lot depends on its action.
For more on the euro, see the EUR/USD.
