ECB leaves key rates unchanged in September as expected

At its monetary policy meeting held on September10th, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to leave the interest rates on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.50%, respectively, as expected.

The ECB also left its purchases under the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) steady at €1,350 billion.

Market reaction

With the initial reaction, the EUR/USD pair inched slightly higher and was last seen gaining 0.33% on the day at 1.1841.

Additional takeaways as summarized by Reuters

"Interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until it has seen inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to, but below, 2% within its projection horizon and such convergence have been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics."

"Purchases contribute to easing overall monetary policy stance, thereby helping to offset the downward impact of the pandemic on the projected path of inflation."

"Purchases will continue to be conducted in a flexible manner over time, across asset classes and among jurisdictions."

"ECB will conduct net asset purchases under PEPP until at least end of June 2021 and, in any case, until it judges that coronavirus crisis phase is over."

"Will reinvest principal payments from maturing securities purchased under PEPP until at least end of 2022."

"Net purchases will continue at a monthly pace of €20 billion, together with purchases under an additional €120 billion temporary envelope until the end of the year."

"ECB continues to expect monthly net asset purchases under app to run for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of its policy rates, and to end shortly before it starts raising interest rates."

"ECB continues to stand ready to adjust all of its instruments, as appropriate, to ensure that inflation moves towards its aim in a sustained manner, in line with its commitment to symmetry."