The European Central Bank on Thursday left its interest rates on hold, ahead of a news conference where its president, Mario Draghi, was expected to detail progress in bringing an end to the eurozone's long-running debt crisis.
Financial markets have been nervous for days, amid speculation
that Spain may try to sit out the crisis, rather than turning to the
ECB for help which was offered a month ago.
The ECB governing council met at a castle near the Slovenian
capital Ljubljana under a policy of holding two meetings each year
outside the ECB's Frankfurt headquarters.
The announcement, 45 minutes before Draghi's news conference
scheduled for 1230 GMT, left the benchmark refinancing rate at the
record low of 0.75 per cent set by the ECB in July.
The main Frankfurt stock index, the DAX, which had been running at
7,315 just before the announcement, rose slightly after the decision.
The Bank of England meanwhile left the key interest rate for
sterling unchanged at 0.5 per cent and refrained from pumping more
money into the British economy.
Draghi calmed markets last month with a promise to do "whatever it
takes" through an emergency bond-buying programme to help
cash-strapped eurozone nations, provided they accept external
supervision from the eurozone's bailout agency.
Separately, talks between international lenders and Greece on
whether Athens' cost-cutting moves are working have reached their
final stages.
