The Governing Council of the ECB decided today to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged, after 10 consecutive meetings.

The key interest rate remains at 4.5% (on the lending side) and the deposit rate at 4%.

The decision broadly confirms the ECB’s previous assessment of the medium-term outlook for inflation.

Inflation is expected to remain “very high” for a long time and domestic price pressures remain strong, reports the update from the meeting in Athens.

Result of the specific situation, will be to put further pressure on product prices.

Specifically, as stated in the announcement, the latest data broadly confirmed the ECB’s previous assessment of the medium-term outlook for inflation. THE inflation is still expected to remain too high for too long and domestic price pressures remain strong. At the same time, inflation eased markedly in September, partly due to strong base effects, and most measures of core inflation continued to ease.

In any case the Governing Council of the ECB It says it remains ready to adjust all the tools at its disposal as part of its mandate to ensure that inflation returns to the 2% target over the medium term and to maintain the smooth functioning of the monetary policy transmission.

Today’s brake on the increases of interest rates it was decided after the further slowdown of its two main price indicators Eurozone and worsening economic conditions for the 20 member states, which face the risk of recession in the second half of the year as more expensive borrowing squeezes household and business budgets.

However, several ECB board members have signaled that borrowing costs will remain elevated for a long time to bring inflation back towards the 2% target. While several are warning of further monetary tightening should the tension in Middle East carried over to energy prices, some analysts warn that interest rate cuts may be needed before next autumn.