As expected by most analysts, the ECB kept its rates unchanged for all three facilities. From the press release:
ECB Monetary Policy Decisions
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 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.20% respectively.
Further monetary policy measures will be communicated by the President of the ECB at a press conference starting at 2.30 p.m. CET today.
This is hardly surprising, although as HSBC accurately observed, if the ECB really wants to incentivize banks to sell their government bond holdings, it should have actually pushed rates higher.
In any event, as the ECB also noted, "Further monetary policy measures will be communicated by the President of the ECB at a press conference starting at 2.30 p.m. CET today" ?which is a signal that a much bigger announcement is coming in 45 minutes when Draghi begins to speak.
