Central Banks in Europe Hold Line on Rates - by JACK EWING and JULIA WERDIGIER

The European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged Thursday, as policy makers waited to see whether signs of improving growth meant that the euro zone economy had already put the worst behind it.'

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, gave a slightly more upbeat assessment of the euro zone economy Thursday, saying there were “tentative signs of a stabilization in economic activity at a low level.”

"We expect the euro area economy to recover very gradually in the course of 2012,” he said at a news conference after the monthly monetary policy meeting of the central bank’s governing council. 

Central Banks in Europe Hold Line on Rates - NYTimes.com