The ECB's governing council left interest rates unchanged Thursday, a spokesman said, after Christine Lagarde chaired her second meeting as president.

As expected, the Frankfurt institution held the rate on its main refinancing operations at zero, on its marginal lending facility at 0.25% and its deposit facility rate at -0.5%.

The governors also left the ECB's massive bond-buying scheme untouched, having only in November restarted asset purchases to the tune of €20 billion a month.