We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by Commissioner Rehn. Based on its regular economic and monetary analyses, the Governing Council decided to leave the key ECB interest rates unchanged. The current rates remain appropriate.
The financial collapses that occurred after the bursting of the 1880s property bubble had led to a global depression with very large falls in output and high unemployment. The continuing effects of that financial collapse meant that this boom, somewhat unusually, was not accompanied by a sharp acceleration in money supply growth.