The European Central Bank (ECB) on the 30th (local time) held policy rates, including the interest rate on deposits, unchanged.
The ECB held a currency policy meeting in Florence, Italy, that day and decided to keep the interest rate on deposits (2.00%), the main refinancing rate (2.15%), and the marginal lending rate (2.40%) all unchanged.
The ECB said, "Inflation is staying close to the medium-term target of 2%, and the Governing Council's inflation outlook is largely unchanged," and added, "The economy continues to grow despite a difficult global environment."
With this rate hold, the gap between the eurozone (20 countries using the euro) currency policy benchmark, the interest rate on deposits, and Korea's base rate (2.50%) remains 0.50 percentage point (p). As the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) lowered its base rate to 3.75–4.00% the previous day, the rate gap between the eurozone and the United States narrowed to 1.75–2.00% p.
From June last year to June this year, the ECB cut policy rates eight times by a total of 2.00 percentage points and then held them steady at all three meetings through that day.
The eurozone consumer price inflation rate fell to 1.9% in May this year and has hovered around 2.0% since. Last month it was 2.2%. The ECB projects inflation at 2.1% this year and 1.7% next year.