The European Central Bank (ECB) held its key interest rate at 3.75 per cent as expected today.
All 72 analysts in a Reuters poll last week had expected the ECB to leave rates steady, and most economists see no action until a 25 basis point increase in June to 4 per cent.
Annual inflation, at 1.9 per cent in March, remained in line with the ECB's target of just below 2 per cent for a seventh month in a row, giving the bank reason to wait.
A strengthening euro currency, which has touched a two-year high on a trade-weighted basis, is also helping to calm inflation pressures.
But oil prices have risen roughly 25 per cent since January, and pricing power of businesses has increased along with economic confidence in a region that is enjoying its second year of above-trend growth.
Money and credit growth is also robust, convincing analysts and markets that the ECB's campaign of rate increases, which began in late 2005, is not yet over.
The ECB also left the interest rate on its deposit facility, used for excess banking funds, at 2.75 per cent and the rate on the marginal lending facility, used for emergency overnight loans to banks, at 4.75 per cent.