Bank of England, European Central Bank hold rates steady. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

May 8, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Bank of England, European Central Bank hold rates steady.

The Bank of England announced the decision to keep its interest rate at 5.00 percent today. The BOE had reduced its interest rate in each of February and April by 25 basis points citing a slowdown in economic growth, financial market turmoil and tightening credit lending. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank also left its interest rate unchanged at 4.0 percent today in order to keep inflationary pressures in check. The ECB has kept its interest rate steady since a raise of 25 basis points in June of 2007. The ECB Governing Council also left the deposit rate steady at 3 percent and the marginal lending rate unchanged at 5 percent today.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet commented on the ECB monetary decision in a separate statement today, "The latest information confirms our assessment that upside risks to price stability prevail over the medium term, in a context of continuing very vigorous money and credit growth. At the same time, the economic fundamentals of the euro area are sound, and incoming macroeconomic data continue to point to moderate but ongoing real GDP growth. However, the level of uncertainty resulting from the turmoil in financial markets remains unusually high and tensions still persist. Against this background, we emphasise that maintaining price stability in the medium term is our primary objective in accordance with our mandate."

Tags: interest rate, euro, gbp, ecb, boe, pound, bank of england, european central bank

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