ECB keeps rates on-hold, trims QE by EUR 30 bln per month and extended to Sept 2018

At its monetary policy meeting held today, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to leave the interest rates on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively, while adding that it expects the “interest rates to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.”

The ECB announced that the net asset purchases will be reduced to EUR 30 billion per month from the current monthly pace of EUR 60 billion from January 2018 and would be extended to Sept 2018.

Attention now turns to ECB President Mario Draghi's speech at the 1230 GMT press conference, during which he may offer more clues on the future path of the monetary policy.