The European Central Bank kept its stimulus program unchanged as policy makers try to assess the economic damage inflicted by the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.
Officials left the main refinancing rate at zero, the deposit rate at minus 0.4 percent and asset purchases at 80 billion euros ($88 billion) a month as predicted in a Bloomberg survey. Britain’s decision to split from its main trading partner will loom large as President Mario Draghi addresses reporters at 2:30 p.m. in Frankfurt.
“The Governing Council continues to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases,” the ECB said in a statement on Thursday. The central bank “confirms that the monthly asset purchases of 80 billion euros are intended to run until the end of March 2017, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until it sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim.”