Europe: European Central Bank Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged
8 September, 2011, 19:54. Posted by ZarathustraTags: Economy, Europe, European Central Bank
The European Central Bank keeps the interest rate on the main refinancing operations at 1.5%, the interest rate on the marginal lending facility at 2.25%, and the interest rate on the deposit facility at 0.75%. Everything unchanged as expected.
The president of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet will be holding a press conference in about 35 minutes time. The focus, I believe, would be on the peripheral European debt crisis, and to look for hint on whether the ECB might be prepared to ease monetary policy after raising interest rates twice this year, which was a mistake, in my view.
You can watch the press conference below.
The gist of it: The ECB now views inflation risk as balanced (as opposed to on the upside before), while economic growth risk on the downside (as opposed to balanced before). The ECB recognised the weakening growth prospect.
The interesting bit: one journalist asked Jean-Claude Trichet on the debate in Germany on returning to Deutsche Mark, Jean-Claude Trichet gave an epic rant, that can be watched here. He also said in his epic rant that “This is the worst crisis after the second world war, we do our job and it’s not an easy job”. At the end, he said “thank you for your excellent question, it is very stimulating”, which actually means the question was very irritating.
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About Zarathustra
Zarathustra: Founder and Managing Editor of Also sprach Analyst. Once an analyst, now an investor and entrepreneur. Based in Hong Kong, but Londoner at heart.
