The European Central Bank left its interest rates and asset purchases unchanged on Thursday, as the resurgence of the coronavirus infections and continuing lockdowns have damped the prospects of an economic rebound later this year. The Governing Council, led by ECB President Christine Lagarde, left key interest rates unchanged and maintained the size of the pandemic emergency purchase programme, or PEPP, at EUR 1,850 billion.
The main refi rate was held steady at a record low zero percent and the deposit rate was kept at -0.50 percent. The lending rate was held steady at 0.25 percent. Policymakers retained the forward guidance on interest rates, saying it expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until the inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently "close to, but below, 2 percent".
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June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.