ECB, 금리•양적완화 동결…장기대출 금리 인하<br /><br />As Europe struggles to fight the coronavirus,... its central bank is rolling out a set of measures to respond to the pandemic.<br />This comes as the President of the European Central Bank warned that the pandemic will push the euro area economy into an economic slump of a magnitude and speed that are unprecedented in peacetime.<br />Kim Hyo-sun reports.<br />The chief of the European Central Bank is warning that the coronavirus will push the euro zone economy into an unprecedented peacetime slump,... adding that output in the 19-nation euro zone is expected to shrink by 5 to 12 percent this year.<br />"Growth scenarios produced by ECB staff suggest that Euro area GDP could fall between 5% and 12% this year, followed by a recovery and normalization of growth in subsequent years. The extent of the contraction and recovery will depend crucially on the duration and the success of the containment measures."<br />Against such a background,... the ECB Governng Council decided Thursday to leave key interest rates for the euro area unchanged while it introduced a set of new measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />Its Governing Council said the eurozone base interest rate will remain at zero percent,... with the marginal lending and deposit rates remaining at a quarter of a percent and minus zero-point-five percent, respectively.<br />"We decided to keep the key ECB interest rate unchanged. We expect them to remain at their present or lower levels until we have seen the inflation outlook robustly converged to a level sufficiently close to, but below 2% within our projection horizon and such convergence has been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics."<br />The ECB also explained it will further ease conditions on the targeted longer-term refinancing operations in order to support liquidity.<br />These measures add to the central bank's comprehensive response to the pandemic,... which mainly includes a 820 billion dollar pandemic emergency purchase program announced in mid-March.<br />Italy, one of the hardest hit nations in Europe, witnessed its GDP drop by 4-point-8 percent on-year in the first quarter of the year.<br />Its statistics agency also said it fell 4-point-7 percent compared to the last quarter of 2019.<br />This was the biggest drop since current statistical records began in 1995.<br />Meanwhile, finance ministers from the G7 countries held a video conference on Thursday to discuss strategies to accelerate economic activity once they reopen following sweeping lockdowns aimed at containing the pandemic.<br />They agreed to continue coordinating "timely and effective actions" in response to the economic fallout.<br />Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.<br />
