The European Central Bank has announced fresh stimulus measures in a bid to boost inflation and the eurozone’s recovery.
The ECB is to extend its quantitative easing programme by six months. The bank’s President Mario Draghi told a news conference that its asset buying programme would continue at least until the end of March 2017, or beyond if necessary, at the current rate of 60 billion euros a month.
The scheme is to be enlarged to include the purchase of municipal and regional bonds.
Earlier the bank announced that the main interest rates would remain unchanged – at 0.05 percent for main refinancing operations, and 0.3 percent on the marginal lending facility.
But the main bank deposit rate has been cut further into negative territory – from -0.2 to -0.3 percent, charging banks more for parking cash with the central bank in a bid to boost lending.
“Today’s decisions also reinforce the momentum of the euro area’s economic recovery. The Governing Council will closely monit
