BERLIN: The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged at its meeting on Thursday, bringing an end to a series of hikes that started in July last year.

Policymakers had raised rates at each of their last 10 meetings as they sought to rein in soaring inflation driven in large part by surging energy prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But ebbing price pressures and signs of weakness in the economy prompted the ECB to hold interest rates at their current levels, while the bank assesses the outlook for the eurozone.

The decision not to hike again still left the ECB’s key deposit rate at four per cent — its highest mark in the history of the central bank.

Eurozone inflation had “dropped markedly”, the ECB said in a statement.

Having hit double-digit highs at the end of last year, the annual rate of increase in prices sat at 4.3pc in September.

The figure was still more than twice the bank’s 2pc-target, while inflation was still expected to stay “too high for too long”, the bank noted.

All the same, the eurozone economy appeared “weak”, ECB President Christine Lagarde said after the meeting held exceptionally in Athens instead of Frankfurt, where policymakers usually gather.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2023