The European Central Bank cut the reference rate from 0,25 to 0,15%, a new historic low. The decision was taken during the meeting of the Governing Council which took place in Frankfurt. The last cut decided by the ECB dates back to last November, when the reference rate was lowered by a quarter point.
The marginal lending rate is raised to 0,4% from 0,75%. The deposit rate, on the other hand, fell into negative territory for the first time, from 0 to -0,1%, which will make it disadvantageous for banks to park their liquidity at the Eurotower.
The ECB announced that at 15.30 it will issue a statement to explain how it intends to change monetary policy: a note lets it be known that "further monetary policy measures will be announced to improve the functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism".
