(ECB President: Mario Draghi, courtesy of pixabay.com)The European Central Bank announced no change to its monetary policy but did have positive forward guidance.Here's the official statement from the ECB website:At today’s meeting, which was held in Tallinn, the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively. The Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases. Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the Governing Council confirms that the net asset purchases, at the current monthly pace of €60 billion, are intended to run until the end of December 2017, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim. The net purchases will be made alongside reinvestments of the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme. If the outlook becomes less favourable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, the Governing Council stands ready to increase the programme in terms of size and/or duration.In the subsequent press release, ECB president Mario Draghi said that economic risks were broadly balanced, which according to NYTimes.com is more optimistic compared to statements during the previous ECB monetary policy press conference. The market didn't have much of a reaction to this event risk. The ECB statement after all was mostly expected and didn't give any time line for the ECB to move away from its currently loose monetary policy, which it had already promised to maintain throughout 2017.