Eurozone official interest rates have been left unchanged at 1 per cent by the European Central Bank as it waits to see the impact of measures taken to combat continental Europe’s worst recession since the second world war.

Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, had signalled last month that eurozone borrowing costs would remain at the current historic low. Instead attention is likely to focus on the ECB’s plans to buy €60bn in “covered bonds,” which are issued by banks and backed by public sector loans or mortgages.