ECB Leaves Rates Unchanged; Focus On Implementing March Measures

The European Central Bank on Thursday left official interest rates unchanged, as expected. The ECB left the interest rate on its main refinancing operations at 0%, the interest rate on its marginal lending facility at 0.25%, and the interest rate on its deposit facility at minus 0.4%. The ECB at its March meeting lowered interest rates, expanded its bond-buying program and launched a new series of cheap, long-term loans for eurozone banks. The ECB said it has started to expand its monthly asset purchases to 80 billion euros, as announced in March and that the "focus is now on the implementation of the additional non-standard measures" decided last month. ECB President Mario Draghi will hold a news conference in Frankfurt at 2:30 p.m. local time, or 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The ECB said further details of its corporate sector purchase program released last month will be released after the news conference.