European Central Bank holds interest rates steady for third meeting in a row

The European Central Bank on Thursday confirmed expectations that it would hold interest rates unchanged at their current record high.

The central bank is keeping the euro zone deposit rate at 4% for the third straight meeting.

The central bank is facing a sluggish euro area economy and fragile financial stability, but it is also focused on bringing inflation down to 2% from 2.9% currently. The ECB is highly concerned with cutting rates too soon and undoing some of the effects of the existing tightening.

Some ECB officials have spent the month pushing back against market expectations for rate cuts in the spring, stressing the need to wait for first-quarter wage data. On Thursday morning, markets were factoring in a 62% probability of an April cut, according to LSEG data.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.