European Central Bank holds and says rates won't change until next summer at the soonest

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European Central Bank holds and says rates won't change until next summer at the soonest

Mario Draghi

REUTERS/Yves Herman

European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi testifies before the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in Brussels, Belgium, February 15, 2016.

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  • European Central Bank leaves monetary policy entirely unchanged at the September meeting of its governing council.
  • Base deposit rate stays at -0.4%, and will remain there until at least next summer, the ECB said.
  • It continues to expect to end its quantitative easing programme by the end of 2018.

The European Central Bank left its monetary policy entirely unchanged at the September meeting of its governing council on Thursday, as had been expected.

That means a base deposit rate of -0.4%, and a quantitative easing program of €30 billion per month - a figure that will be reduced to 15 billion euros per month from the end of September as the bank winds down its bond buying.

The ECB will cease purchasing bonds from the end of 2018, subject to "incoming data confirming the medium-term inflation outlook" for the eurozone.

Interest rates in the eurozone will stay at their present level until "at least through the summer of 2019," the ECB added.

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The ECB's announcement comes on a busy day for global central banks, with the Bank of England leaving its policies unchanged, and Turkey's central bank defying President Erdogan to raise rates to 24%.

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