The European Central Bank (ECB) has left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.75%. At a meeting of the the Governing Council the body decided that all its main rates will stay the same across the board.
"Yes, we discussed the possibility of doing it. But the prevailing consensus was to leave rates unchanged" ECB chief Mario Draghi said.
With inflation in the 17-country Eurozone currently expected to remain in line with the ECB's goal of close to, but just under, 2.0%, "this will allow our monetary policy stance to remain accommodative" he added.
And the central bank's policy stance "will remain accommodative as long as needed" he insisted.
Draghi downplayed concerns that the political deadlock in Italy could destabilise the single currency area as a whole and reawaken the sovereign crisis which appears to have abated in recent months.
"If we look at contagion, you've seen that the contagion to other countries has been muted this time, contrary to what might have happened about a year and a half ago. As you see, markets, after some excitement immediately after the elections, have now reverted back more or less to what they were before".
More confident than before
He also noted that financial markets were in more confident mood than before and had recognised that elections were extremely frequent in the 17-country Eurozone and shrugged off concerns that reforms in Italy could stall given the uncertain political situation.
"You have to consider that much of the fiscal adjustment that Italy went through will continue going on on automatic pilot" said Draghi.
The ECB chief also unveiled the bank's latest updated staff projections for growth and inflation for the single currency area and they trimmed the growth forecasts for this year and next as the impact of the bloc's debt crisis continued to be felt.
The projections saw the Eurozone economy contracting by 0.5% in 2013 before recovering to grow by 1.0% next year.
The previous forecasts in December had pencilled in a contraction of 0.3 percent this year and growth of 1.2% in 2014.
The bank also slightly pared its inflation forecasts for 2014, leaving its estimate for this year unchanged at 1.6%.
