Mario Draghi came out of the gate swinging a powerful punch during his first meeting with EU officials as the European Central Bank’s (ecb’s) new president. He immediately moved to enact a change in eurozone interest rates (something his predecessor, Claude Trichet, had refused to do), dropping the EU benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent, and also cutting marginal lending rates to 2 percent and the deposit rate to 0.5 percent.
This was the latest shocker in a volatile week for financial markets in Europe, the effects of which continue to ripple around the globe. But this time, after receiving a battering from confusing signals coming out of Greece, the markets reacted positively.
