ECB Keeps Rate at 1% as Crisis Threatens to Derail Recovery

The European Central Bank left interest rates at a record low as rising market borrowing costs and the sovereign debt crisis threaten to derail the region’s economic recovery.

Policy makers meeting in Frankfurt today kept the benchmark rate at 1 percent, as predicted by all 55 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Separately, the Bank of England left its key rate at 0.5 percent. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet holds a press conference at 2:30 p.m.