A man walks past the Euro currency sign ('Euro Sculpture' by German artist Ottmar Hoerl) in front of the former European Central Bank (ECB) building in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on June 9, 2026.

Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images

The European Central Bank voted to hold interest rates steady on Thursday, meeting market expectations, despite euro zone inflation rising to a three-year high.

It keeps the central bank's key rate, the deposit facility, at 2.5% following a 25 basis point hike in September .

In a statement, the institution's Governing Council said rising energy prices posed upside risks to the inflation outlook and downside risks to growth, but that underlying inflation and wages were so far broadly stable.

"At this point in time we are not seeing second round effects in addition to what is already included in the projections" released in September, ECB President Christine Lagarde told CNBC's Annette Weisbach during a press conference.

Lagarde identified the main developments…