European Central Bank Sits on Its Hands

Economy

Published: October 2, 2014 8:10 am

The European Central Bank (ECB) may have found that it has its back up against the wall when it comes to monetary policy and interest rates, versus a declining economy that has to worry about deflation. So what is the best or only thing for Mario Draghi to do? Apparently, the best thing to do is to sit on his hands.

At the ECB policy meeting on Thursday, the Governing Council decided to take the unchanged route. This leaves 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.

A press conference will begin shortly, and it is almost always within the statements from Draghi and his team of bankers that investors find the tidbits of data that they really trade off of.

Europe is caught between a rock and a hard place, while the United States keeps fighting every last bit of urge to raise rates. The euro is at $1.2636, versus a 52-week range of $1.2573 to $1.3990.

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