Monetary policy decisions

At today's meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rates on the main refinancing operations, the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 3.0%, 4.0% and 2.0%, respectively.

It was also decided that for the longer-term refinancing operations to be conducted in the first half of 2000 the Eurosystem intends to allot an amount of EUR 20 billion per operation. This amount takes into consideration the expected liquidity needs of the banking system of the euro area in the first half of 2000 and the desire of the Eurosystem to continue to provide the bulk of its refinancing of the financial sector through its main refinancing operations.