Bce, Lagarde: 'Low rates and Qe as long as necessary'

The European Central Bank has left interest rates unchanged: the main rate remains at 0, that on marginal loans at 0.25% and that on deposits at -0.50%. The ECB announced this at the end of the monetary policy meeting, the first led by Christine Lagarde.

ECB rates will remain at current, or lower levels, "until inflation prospects converge robustly" at around 2%, and QE, resumed in early November, will continue as long as necessary, President Lagarde told her first conference official press after the Governing Council. The inflationary pressures, he added, continue to be weak and so are the dynamics of growth, even if there are signs of "a stabilization of the slowdown in growth".

THE DIRECT FROM THE ECB