Interest Rate, European Central Bank | featured news

The data is likely to put pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates at its next meeting.

The euro zone economy shows little sign of recovering before the year-end despite an easing of financial market conditions, European Central Bank Mario Draghi said on Thursday after interest rates were left at a record low.

The European Central Bank is poised to raise interest rates from a record low 1.0 percent on Thursday and more is likely to follow but, fearful of heaping more pain on the euro zone's stragglers, it will give few clues about when the next move will come.

European Central Bank policymakers underscored the case for an April rate hike on Thursday as Portugal's political crisis raised the prospect of another spell of reluctant ECB bond market intervention.