Investing.com - Minutes from the European Central Bank's (ECB) April 21 policy meeting released Thursday revealed that felt that risks to the growth outlook were still to the downside, while members were determined to underline the importance of the monetary authority’s independence in light of recent political criticism.
Although incoming data had pointed to “growth at a moderate, but steady, pace”, the ECB considered that risks to the growth outlook were still tilted to the downside, while having moderated somewhat.”
“It was underlined that the Governing Council was unanimous in its commitment to deliver on its mandate and on the appropriateness of an expansionary monetary policy stance,” the document revealed.
“In the light of recent public criticism that had appeared to link the ECB’s decisions to developments in the political sphere in a Member State, it was viewed as important to reaffirm collectively the independence of the ECB in the pursuit of its mandate,” the minutes added.
While the ECB left the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40%, respectively, it noted that the focus was on the implementation of the additional measures announced on March 10.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1200 from around 1.1203 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7660 from 0.7664 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets remained broadly lower. The Euro Stoxx 50 dropped 0.27%, Germany's DAX fell 0.50%, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.16%, while London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.95%.