- Mario Draghi, ECB President
The European Central Bank held its interest rates at record lows and kept the size of its bond-purchasing programme unchanged, allowing some time for fresh stimulus measures announced last month to affect the economy. The 25-member Governing Council maintained the benchmark rate at zero, the deposit rate at minus 0.4% and asset purchases at 80 billion euros month. ECB President Mario Draghi reiterated that there were still challenges ahead and there is a need to ensure that low inflation does not become entrenched, as the risks to the recovery remained "tilted to the downside". Thus, the monetary policy in the bloc will stay loose, if not looser, in the future. Also, Draghi particularly highlighted emerging market slowdown, subdued public investment and a lack of structural reforms.
Additionally, Draghi robustly defended its cheap money policy against brutal a debate that has driven a wedge between the central bank and Germany, the Euro zone's biggest economy. Criticism by politicians in Germany has intensified amid fears that the ECB could even start to hand out 'helicopter money' to citizens. Germans have a right to question the ECB's actions, but the ECB's independence should not be breached, Chancellor Angela Merkel said
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