ECB’s Lagarde sees slowdown bottoming out

Bank leaves key rates unchanged

The head of the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Thursday that the economic slowdown in the countries that use the euro shows signs of bottoming out.

Christine Lagarde told reporters after the bank kept its monetary policies on hold that recent economic indicators are “weak overall” but “point to some stabilising in the slowdown of of economic growth.”

The central bank on Thursday left its key interest rate benchmarks and stimulus programmes unchanged. It was the bank’s first policy meeting under newly appointed Ms. Lagarde. The bank left its deposit rate at minus 0.5% and its main refinancing rate at zero.

Doubts have grown about how much good additional central bank action can do to support developed economies; the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and signaled it would leave them alone through 2020.