European Central Bank and Bank of England Deliver Duds

Economy

Published: January 9, 2014 7:55 am

Last Updated: January 9, 2014 8:15 am

There has been talk in Europe that Mario Draghi might have make more noise about vigilant policy to prevent weakness from arising, but very few in the investor community were expecting much from the European Central Bank (ECB). Ditto for the Bank of England. Now we have interest rate decisions from both central banks, and frankly these almost feel like duds.

In a move widely expected, the ECB maintained its interest rates steady. The interest rate policy 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 0.25%, 0.75% and 0.00% respectively.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted on Thursday to maintain its official bank rate 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 pounds.

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