European Central Bank Holds Interest Rates Steady... Pandemic Asset Purchases Increased by 820 Trillion Won

Interest Rate Maintained at 0%

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The European Central Bank (ECB) decided on the 4th (local time) to purchase an additional 600 billion euros (approximately 819.906 trillion won) in bonds to respond to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

On the same day, the ECB held a monetary policy meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, and decided to increase the size of the 'Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme' (PEPP) by this amount. The ECB had previously established the PEPP at 750 billion euros (1,024.8825 trillion won) in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The ECB announced that it would extend the PEPP until June next year and reinvest maturing funds until the end of 2022.

Along with this, the ECB decided to keep the policy interest rates unchanged, maintaining the main refinancing rate at the current 0%, and keeping the deposit rate and marginal lending rate at the current -0.50% and 0.25%, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.