ECB keeps interest rates unchanged, increases issue share limit

The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday decided to leave key interest rates unchanged and increase the issue share limit.

The ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations, on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility would remain unchanged at 0.05 percent, 0.3 percent and - 0.2 percent respectively, Xinhua reported.

ECB President Mario Draghi announced the issue share limit would be raised from the initial limit of 25 percent to 33 percent. This would allow the central bank to purchase more single issue bonds. It would be subject to a case-by-case verification, added Draghi.

With regard to the asset purchase program, Draghi said the purchases have a favourable impact on the cost and availability of credit for firms and households.

"In the meantime, we will fully implement our monthly asset purchases of 60 billion euros ($67 billion)."

The programme is scheduled to run until the end of September 2016.

The ECB's September macroeconomic projections suggest that the annual real GDP in the euro area would increase by 1.4 percent in 2015, 1.7 percent in 2016 and 1.8 percent in 2017, lower than the projections made by ECB staff in June.

The real GDP in the euro area grew by 0.3 percent in the second quarter, lower than expected. According to the Eurostat's flash estimate, the euro area annual inflation was 0.2 percent in August, the same level as those in June and July.