ECB leaves benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0% in October as expected

• ECB kept its policy rate steady at 0% in October as expected.
• ECB reminds that €20 billion QE will start in November.
• The EUR/USD pair ignored the policy statement as focus shifts to Draghi presser.

At its monetary policy meeting held on October 24th, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to leave the interest rates on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.50%, respectively. Attention now turns to ECB President Mario Draghi's press conference at 12:30 GMT.

The EUR/USD pair largely ignored the ECB's announcements and was last seen trading at 1.1128, where it was virtually unchanged on a daily basis. Below are some key takeaways from the statement, per Reuters.

"Interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until it has seen inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to, but below, 2% within its projection horizon, and such convergence has been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics."

"As decided at the last ECB meeting in September, net purchases will be restarted under ECB's APP at a monthly pace of €20 billion as from 1 November."

"ECB expects them to run for as long as necessary to reinforce accommodative impact of its policy rates, and to end shortly before it starts raising interest rates."

"ECB intends to continue reinvesting, in full, principal payments from maturing securities purchased under app for an extended period of time past date when it starts raising interest rates, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation."

About ECB's press conference

Following the ECB´s economic policy decision, the ECB President gives a press conference regarding monetary policy. His comments may influence the volatility of EUR and determine a short-term positive or negative trend. His hawkish view is considered as positive, or bullish for the EUR, whereas his dovish view is considered as negative, or bearish.