ECB Tapers Asset Purchase Program to €30 Billion; Holds Rates Steady

Investing.com – The European Central Bank announced Thursday that it would extend its tapering program longer although at a lower amount of purchases, while keeping interest rates unchanged.

Specifically, and beginning in January, the ECB will reduce monthly purchases from the current €60 billion ($70.6 billion) to €30 billion ($35.3 billion) and will extend those purchases to “the end of September 2018, or beyond, if necessary”.

Furthermore and as expected, the ECB left its unchanged at a record-low 0.0%.

The central bank also held its steady at -0.4% and its marginal lending rate remained at 0.25% as expected.

“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 statement repeated.

Traders now look ahead to ECB president Mario Draghi’s at 8:30AM ET (14:30GMT).

After the announcement and ahead of Draghi, the euro declined sharply breaking below the $1.18 psychological level. was trading at 1.1763 from around 1.1807 ahead of the release, while was at 0.8907 from 0.8978 earlier.

Meanwhile, European stock markets extended earlier gains. The benchmark rose 0.75%, France’s gained 0.82%, Germany’s advanced 0.57%, while London’s traded up 0.51%.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.