European Central Bank keeps interest rates unchanged

By Ilker Girit

ISTANBUL (AA) - The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday decided to keep interest rates unchanged.

The bank's Governing Council "expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time," a statement said.

"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 ECB said.