ECB holds key rate steady at record low of 0.5%

The European Central Bank on Thursday held its key rates unchanged, as widely expected, at its regular monthly policy meeting here. The ECB's governing council voted to keep the bank's key "refi" refinancing rate steady at an all-time low of 0.50 percent, after cutting rates by a quarter of a percentage point last month, it said in a statement. The central bank also left its other two rates -- the deposit rate and the marginal lending rate -- at zero percent and 1.0 percent respectively. Given the proximity of last month's cut, no analysts or ECB watchers had been expecting the central bank to announce any further policy moves this month. ECB chief Mario Draghi is scheduled later Thursday to explain the reasoning behind the decision at his regular monthly news conference.