Draghi Says Rates Accommodative as Economic Outlook Worsens

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said interest rates remain supportive and policy makers still expect a gradual economic recovery this year even as recent data cloud the outlook.

Latest indicators “are not enough to change our baseline scenario, which foresees a gradual recovery in the course of the year,” Draghi said at a press conference in Barcelona today after the ECB held its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent. “We didn’t discuss any specific move in interest rates but we did discuss our general monetary policy stance, which we found accommodative in view of an economic outlook that becomes more uncertain.”