Despite some concerns that the ECB would lower rates (and maybe go negative on deposits) at today's meeting, it was certainly not the consensus. And for once, the consensus was right. Form the ECB [3]:
At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.50%, 1.00% and 0.00% respectively. The President of the ECB will comment on the considerations underlying these decisions at a press conference starting at 2.30 p.m. CET today.
Look for Mario to not touch on this issue at today's press conference in 45 minutes if indeed there is much disagreement among the governing council, and instead to focus on what plans the central bank has to spur European private lending which as we showed last week, just hit record lows [4]. If any of course. We, on the other hand, are still hoping to finally get the OMT term sheet that supposedly saved Europe last summer. Because it looks kinda stupid if market participants continue to get duped by an "instrument" that officially and unofficially doesn't exist.
