From left to right: Wolfgang Schäuble, German Federal Minister for Finance, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister, President of the Eurogroupa and Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank before the Eurogroup meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, Feb 15, 2010.

The European Central Bank (ECB) as expected kept its benchmark interest rate on hold at 1.0%, at a meeting of the governing council in Frankfurt, today. The ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet, will address a press conference and he is expected to be questioned on the economic woes of Eurozone member Greece and on the exit from emergency lending. In London, the Bank of England kept its key rate at 0.5% - - the lowest since 1694.

Eurostat, the EU statistics office, confirmed today that GDP increased by 0.1% in both the Eurozone (EA16) and the EU27 during the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with the previous quarter. In the third quarter of 2009, growth rates were +0.4% in the Eurozone and +0.3% in the EU27. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, seasonally adjusted GDP declined by 2.1% in the Eurozone and by 2.3% in the EU27, after -4.1% and -4.3% respectively for the previous quarter. Corporate investment declined 0.8% from the third quarter, when it fell 0.9%, while household spending was flat. Exports gained 1.7% and imports rose 0.9%. Gross domestic product rose 0.1% from the third quarter, when it increased 0.4%. Over the whole year 2009, GDP decreased by 4.1% in the Eurozone and by 4.2% in the EU27, compared with +0.6% and +0.8% respectively for 2008. Over the whole year 2009, GDP decreased by 2.4% in the US (+0.4% in 2008) and by 5.0% in Japan (-1.2% in 2008).

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official bank rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £200 billion.

The previous change in bank rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009. A programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves was initiated on 5 March 2009. The most recent change in the size of that programme was an increase of £25 billion to a total of £200 billion on 5 November 2009.

The Eurozone (EA16) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, will address a press conference from 1:30 pm Irish Time.

He is expected to announce the next steps in its gradual withdrawal from emergency lending to Eurozone banks.

The ECB will return to competitive bidding to set the interest rate on three-month loans at some point this year, which would raise costs for banks in the 16- member country Eurozone. The central bank is expected to continue providing unlimited financing on a shorter-term basis, given concerns about Greek debt and indications that some institutions are still dependent on central bank support.

Web Cast- -  choose the player configuration from the window which opens to have the best reception.