Draghi didn't announce any new monetary measures

Mario Draghi in his press conference stressed the downside risks to growth forecasts. The central bank sees the economy growing at steady pace and inflation moving upward over the course of the next couple of years. Draghi used rhetoric, but the market is concerned about recent downgrades to German economic growth and the lack of bonds to purchase to stimulate prices. During the question and answer session of the press conference, Draghi was asked about other instruments that could be used as part of the quantitative easing program.  One of the issue the ECB is facing is that their stringent bond purchase program is making it very difficult for the central bank to find bonds that are eligible for purchase. 

ECB left monetary policy unchanged

At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively. The Governing Council continues to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.

Eurozone figures will show if more stimulus is needed

After five weeks of silence, the European Central Bank president is leaving it largely to a raft of economic data to fine-tune policy expectations ahead of the Governing Council’s next meeting on Sept. 8. Reports covering inflation to business confidence and unemployment in the coming days may signal whether more stimulus is needed to sustain the recovery and revive price growth amid potential fallout from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

ECB left interest rates unchanged