The European Central Bank approved yet more stimulus on Thursday to prop up an economy plunged by the coronavirus pandemic into its biggest recession since World War Two.
Just months after a raft of emergency measures, the ECB said it would increase the size of emergency bond purchases by 600 billion euros ($674 billion) to 1.35 trillion euros and that the purchases would run until the end of June 2021, six month longer than originally planned.
With Thursday’s decision, the ECB also kept its main interest rate unchanged at 0% and its deposit rate, now its de facto benchmark, at minus 0.5%.
