ECB and BOE Both Leave Interest Rates Static, Risk of More Recession

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: June 6, 2013 8:15 am

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BOE) have both voted to leave their key short-term rates flat at 0.50%. Despite the notion that Europe is still teetering on or in a recession, depending on which country, it was expected that the ECB and the BOE would not be making changes to the interest rates.

The ECB statement said:

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.

The Bank of England’s interest rate policy statement said:

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion. The minutes of the meeting will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 19 June.

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