The European Central Bank resisted calls to cut interest rates at President Jean-Claude Trichet’s final policy meeting today and may opt to use other tools to stem the sovereign debt crisis.
ECB officials meeting in Berlin left the benchmark rate at 1.5 percent, as predicted by 41 of 52 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Five forecast a cut to 1.25 percent and six expected a reduction to 1 percent. With Greece on the brink of default, the ECB is under pressure to step up efforts to stop contagion by shoring up the euro region’s bond markets and helping banks weather the storm.
