ECB MEETING OF GOVERNING COUNCIL: NO CHANGES, AS EXPECTED

The official communiqué: "6 June 2013 - Monetary policy decisions. 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 0.50%, 1.00% and 0.00% respectively. The President of the ECB will comment on the considerations underlying these decisions at a press conference starting at 2.30 p.m. CET today". Text of press conference: see.

Two things to note: (1) subdued inflation expectations: "The underlying price pressure in the euro area is expected to remain subdued"; (2) the progress made in terms of fragmentation of credit markets within the Eurozone:

It is essential that the fragmentation of euro area credit markets continues to decline further and that the resilience of banks is strengthened where needed. Progress has been made since last summer in improving the funding situation of banks, in strengthening the domestic deposit base in stressed countries and in reducing reliance on the Eurosystem as reflected in repayments of the three-year LTROs.
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