European Central Bank holds rates
Today's second central bank decision and the European Central Bank has opted to leave its key interest rate unchanged, at 0.25 per cent.
All other rates have been held, too.
Capital Economics has called the outcome a "disappointment". Like numerous others, the research group was hoping Mario Draghi's dovish comments would lead to some action, but the bank's resisted the mounting pressure to do something.
It is possible that the stabilisation in the inflation rate over the last few months, coupled with some slightly stronger activity indicators, persuaded a majority of Governing Council members that the need for more policy support was not immediate. (We would take different view.)
For many, the announcement was something of a foregone conclusion. Societe Generale's Kit Juckes said this morning that he "can't really see" what the ECB can do from here to boost credit and, therefore, money supply.
Quantitative easing would be diluted because the Fed's QE has already sent global asset prices up, and the euro against the dollar is near the top of its range, moving lower once US rates start to move up.
He adds: "but the ECB may boost risk appetite, hardly a difficult task during the current hiatus in the Ukrainian crisis."
President Draghi's due to speak at 1.30, casting some more light on the bank's easing intentions – or not – and its 2016 forecasts. Capital Economics comments:
It seems very unlikely that Mr Draghi will close the door to more policy action at the press conference.
Not only is growth still very sluggish, but the strong euro is a clear threat to the recovery and liquidity in the banking sector has continued to fall.
Against that background, while the timing and form of any further policy action is uncertain and will rest on developments in the economy and banking sector, we still believe that more ECB action is needed to secure the region’s recovery and head off the risk of a damaging bout of deflation.