The ECB left interest rates at a record low as rising market borrowing costs and the sovereign debt crisis threaten to derail the region’s economic recovery.
Policy makers meeting in Frankfurt today kept the benchmark rate at 1 percent. Separately, the Bank of England left its key rate at 0.5 percent.
Trichet is under pressure to do more to shore up investor confidence in the 16-nation euro region as government spending cuts and concerns about the health of the banking sector cloud the outlook for growth. The International Monetary Fund said yesterday the ECB may have to step up its purchases of government bonds, which have already split the bank’s 22-member Governing Council.
