Despite tentative hopes from investors, the European Central Bank decided to keep rates steady at 1.00 percent in their highly anticipated monetary policy decision today.
And in the press conference following the monetary policy decision, ECB President Mario Draghi did not make good on any hopes that he would pursue constructive non-standard measures, like restarting the Securities Markets Programme (in which the ECB bought Italian and Spanish bonds to keep yields down), a third extended long-term refinancing operation (which provides banks with the opportunity to borrow unlimited free cash from the ECB), or some surprising decision on Spanish banks.
While Draghi told reporters that the Bank "will stand ready to act" if data shows that the eurozone economy has continued to deteriorate in coming months, "conflicting data" from Q1 and Q2 has prevented the bank from taking any steps so far. Draghi noted that some Governing Council members contested this view, calling for an immediate rate cut.
Our live coverage appears below. You can watch his presser at the ECB's website.
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