Gold prices unchanged after ECB leaves interest rates unchanged

London (Oct 24)  Gold prices are holding steady below $1,500 an ounce as the European Central Bank holds interest rates steady, in line with expectation.

Thursday, the ECB announced that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.50% respectively.

The central bank also reiterated its stance that interest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future.

“The Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until it has seen the inflation outlook robustly converge to a level sufficiently close to, but below, 2% within its projection horizon, and such convergence has been consistently reflected in underlying inflation dynamics,” the central bank said in its statement.

Markets now wait for the press conference with ECB president Mario Draghi.

Gold prices are seeing little reaction to the expected announcement. December gold futures last traded at $1,493.10, down 0.17% on the day.

KitcoNews