ECB Keeps Rates on Hold as Worsening Crisis Damps Growth Outlook

The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged and may lower its inflation and growth forecasts as the region’s debt crisis worsens.

ECB officials meeting in Frankfurt today kept the benchmark rate at 1.5 percent, as predicted by all 57 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. President Jean-Claude Trichet, who holds a press conference at 2:30 p.m., may say inflation risks are no longer on the upside, signaling rates are now on hold after two increases this year, economists said.