The European Central Bank confirmed on Thursday its picture of a gradual euro zone economic recovery with limited inflation risks, signalling unchanged interest rates for some time to come.
"The current stance of monetary policy remains appropriate. The stance provides support to the economic recovery in the euro area," the ECB said in the editorial section of the report.
The commentary was a close repeat of the ECB president Mr Jean-Claude Trichet's message at a news conference after the bank left its benchmark rate unchanged at two percent last week.
The policy message was carefully worded so as not to signal either an easing or a tightening policy bias, said Mr Michael Schubert, an economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Weak consumption remains a concern, but shoppers should soon start spending more because low inflation means their money keeps its value and because of an expected recovery in the job market, the ECB said.
Inflation risks have pretty much disappeared, even though statistical effects from last year's hefty oil price moves mean the annual rate could inch up in the second quarter. Recent commodity price rises should be offset by the strong euro.
Since Friday's surprisingly weak US jobs data, markets were seeing around a 20 per cent chance of an ECB cut by June.
A minority of economists said the ECB would lower rates in the coming months, but most expect it to stick to its guns throughout most of the year and then start hiking borrowing costs as the recovery takes hold more firmly.