ECB holds key interest rate steady at 1.0%

The European Central Bank today held its key interest rates steady, as expected,   leaving eurozone borrowing costs at the historic lows they have been at since December.

The ECB's policy-setting governing council voted to leave the rate for its main refinancing operations unchanged at 1.0 percent at its regular policy meeting, held this month on Wednesday owing to a public holiday on Thursday.

Few analysts had been expecting the central bank to announce any rate cuts this month, but there is some speculation ECB chief Mario Draghi could, at the regular post-meeting news conference, announce additional measures to prop up the euro and keep the single currency area's debt-wracked economy up and running as the long-running sovereign debt crisis deepens.

At the very least, Draghi could use the conference to signal possible monetary easing next month, analysts believe.

The Italian took over as ECB president last November and has not shied away from surprise moves in his short career at the helm so far.

The ECB is also scheduled to publish its latest quarterly staff projections on inflation and growth which could highlight the downside economic risks for the 17 countries that share the euro and bolster the case for a rate cut.

The ECB has never hesitated to act since the start of the crisis.

It quickly reversed last year's rate hikes to bring eurozone borrowing costs back down to an all-time low of 1.0 percent and embarked on a hotly contested programme of buying up bonds issued by debt-mired countries to ease their borrowing costs.

Most recently, in two so-called long-term refinancing operations (LTROs) in December and February, it pumped more than 1.0 trillion euros ($1.25 trillion) into the banking system to avert a dangerous credit squeeze.