Euro bank holds interest rates steady

The European Central Bank held interest rates at their present level of one percent on Thursday (8 October), following a meeting of the bank's governing council in Venice.

"The current rates remain appropriate," said ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet at a press conference after the meeting, indicating a rise in interest rates – currently at an historic low – would be unlikely before well into next year.

With consumer prices 0.3 percent lower in September than a year before, the EC...