The European Central Bank on Thursday decided to keep the benchmark refinancing rate unchanged while a major refinancing operation is pending.

"At today's meeting 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 1 percent, 1.75 percent and 0.25 percent respectively," said a statement released by the ECB.

It was widely expected before the meeting that the interest rates will remain unchanged as the ECB is set to conduct a second three-year longer term refinancing operation at the end of this month.