Mubasher: The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday said it will keep its monetary policy and interest rates unchanged.

The bank added in a statement that interest rates would remain on hold until “well past” the end of the ECB’s asset purchase programme.

Speaking in Frankfurt, ECB President Mario Draghi said “We haven't discussed a sudden stop of asset purchases or tapering,” adding that the bank was “very transparent” about its purchase programme.

“Raising interest rates in the future would be good news because it would show inflation is on the path to being self-sustained,” Draghi added during the press conference.

Analysts and experts had forecast that the ECB will keep interest rates stable.

“We are certainly more confident today than we were two months ago. The strengthening of the economy is the basis on which the output gap will close,” the ECB President stated.

As for the ECB’s forecasts for gross domestic product (GDP), the bank expects 2.4% GDP in 2017, 2.3% in 2018, 1.9% in 2019, and 1.7% in 2020.

In October, the ECB had said it would reduce the level of its quantitative easing (QE) programme to EUR 30 billion from its current EUR 60 billion but will expand the purchases until sometime in 2018.