Protester steals the show as ECB keeps main policy rates unchanged

A protester stole the limelight at the European Central Bank's press conference on Wednesday after announcing no surprises in policy measures.

The ECB decided to keep policy unchanged, as expected by analysts, maintaining the main refinancing rate at 0.05%, the deposit facility rate at -0.20% and the marginal lending facility at 0.30%.

At the press conference after the policy announcement, President Mario Draghi was interrupted by a young female protester jumping on his desk, throwing confetti and shouting "end ECB dictatorship". The meeting was put on hold for a short moment but Draghi seemed unaffected when he resumed the conference shortly afterwards with a smile on his face.

The president stated that quantitative easing was intended to run until the end of September 2016 or until the ECB sees enough improvement in inflation, with the aim of bringing it back towards a level of just below 2%.

"In other words, if inflation picks up faster than the ECB is anticipating, it will taper its asset purchases, and if slower, it will go beyond," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

"All things considered, as expected, today was something of a non-event from the ECB," he added.

The ECB also touched on Greece, saying that the nation is the biggest beneficiary of emergency liquidity assistance which has been raised to support the debt-ridden nation. Greece currently receives €110bn.

Greece's next debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund is due on 7 May as the nation continues talks with creditors to unlock further aid.