At a meeting held in Brussels today,Thursday, the 15th of January, 2009 the Governing Council of the European Central Bank took the following monetary policy decisions:
– The interest rate on the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem will be decreased by 50 basis points to 2.00%, starting from the operation to be settled on 21 January 2009.
– The interest rate on the marginal lending facility will be set at 3.00%, with effect from 21 January 2009.
– The interest rate on the deposit facility will be set at 1.00%, with effect from 21 January 2009.
These decisions are in accordance with the Governing Council’s decision on 18 December 2008 to restore the width of the corridor of standing facility rates around the interest rate on the main refinancing operation to 200 basis points.