The ECB left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the effective lower bound of 0.25 %, as widely expected. Also no changes were made to the €1.85 trillion pandemic emergency bond purchasing programme. Central bank reaffirmed that the size of PEPP program will remain at €1.85 trillion. PEPP purchases over the current quarter to continue to be significantly higher. QE purchases will continue at monthly pace of €20 billion. Investors will focus now on ECB President Lagarde comments at the press conference regarding the economic outlook, inflation, fiscal stimulus and the impact of a slow vaccination rollout.
EURUSD saw a relatively small reaction to today’s ECB decision. The most popular currency pair continued to trade around 1.2050 level. Source: xStation5