 "A man uses his mobile phone to take a picture of the euro sculpture outside the head quarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. REUTERS")
The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday to boost the euro zone economy, surprising financial markets by dropping its main refinancing rate to zero from 0.05 percent.
It also expanded its quantitative easing asset-buying programme to 80 billion euros a month from 60 billion euros and cut its deposit rate to -0.4 percent from -0.3 percent, charging banks more to keep their money with the ECB.
The moves - which knocked the euro down 1 percent against the dollar - reflect the ECB's struggle with falling inflation expectations and worries about ultra low price growth.
Attention now turns to ECB President Mario Draghi's 1330 GMT news conference.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
