The European Central Bank has kept interest rates at 2% following a half-point cut in June.

Earlier on Thursday, the Bank of England chose to leave UK interest rates unaltered at 3.5%.

The plentiful supply of cheap money and signs of recovery mean the ECB sees little need for further stimulus, analysts say.

The unanimity of expectations among observers meant the euro budged no more than a fraction of a cent in the wake of the announcement, trading at $1.0818 right after the decision compared with about $1.0820 before.

Senior ECB figures, including incoming president Jean-Claude Trichet, have gone out of their way in recent weeks to stress their satisfaction with current interest rates.

Lowest level

In a written answer to the European Parliament, Mr Trichet said the fact that interest rates "are at their lowest level for half a century... is not stressed enough".

And Bundesbank President and ECB governing council member Ernst Welteke used an interview with Britain's euro-sceptic Daily Mail newspaper to reject a rate cut too.

"What would a lower interest rate achieve?" he asked, suggesting it could trigger inflation and therefore much higher interest rates in the long term.

Mr Trichet is a central banking star

Mr Trichet may still want to deliver a further cut once he takes over from outgoing ECB chief Wim Duisenberg in November - whose absence from Thursday's meeting to attend a conference in Canada was yet more evidence ahead of time that no change was planned.

Some economists feel this makes any movement on interest rates before then even more unlikely.

The nomination of Mr Trichet, head of the French central bank, has been in the pipeline since 1998, although its confirmation had to wait till he was cleared of involvement in a high-profile corruption case in June this year.

But others warn that the likelihood is that the next change in eurozone interest rates will be upward, if inflation starts to tick skyward again.

Blame

The ECB has often been criticised for failing to move as fast as its counterparts in Washington and London to cut the cost of borrowing in the face of a global slowdown.

The US Federal Reserve now has rates at just 1%, while the UK's 3.5% base rate - while well above that of the eurozone - is also at a half-century low.

Sky-high joblessness and economic stagnation in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has been blamed in part on the ECB's single-minded focus on inflation rather than on jobs and growth.

Recent data, though, suggests a slow turnaround may finally be under way, with eurozone manufacturing turning upwards in July and business activity showing its best performance since mid-2002.

But the high level of unemployment in many eurozone nations may keep consumer spending subdued.