FRANKFURT, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Thursday that it decided to keep the euro area key interest rates unchanged following a regular monetary policy meeting.
Eurozone key interest rates will remain at record low levels, with the base interest rate, marginal lending rate and deposit rate unchanged at 0.00 percent, 0.25 percent and minus 0.50 percent, respectively, the ECB said in a statement.
The ECB also said that incoming information confirmed the joint assessment of financing conditions and the inflation outlook carried out at the last meeting in March, during which the Governing Council decided to pick up the pace of bond purchases under the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) over the following quarter.
The Governing Council expects purchases under the PEPP over the current quarter to continue to be conducted at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of the year, the ECB said.
The PEPP, first rolled out in March last year and expanded twice thereafter, has a total envelope of 1.85 trillion euros (2.23 trillion U.S. dollars) and is set to run until at least the end of March 2022. Enditem
