The European Central Bank left its quantitative-easing programunchanged as policy makers wait to see if a pickup in inflationwill be sustained.

The Governing Council reaffirmed its December decision thatasset purchases will be reduced to 60 billion euros ($64 billion) amonth from April, from 80 billion euros currently. Policymakers also kept the main refinancing rate at zero and the depositrate at minus 0.4 percent, as predicted by all economists in aBloomberg survey.

The first policy decision of 2017 comes six weeks after Draghideclared the threat of deflation to be almost vanquished. Pricegrowth in the region is starting to accelerate after almost fouryears of undershooting the ECB's goal, and in a sign that sentimentis gradually changing, Executive Board member Benoit Coeureacknowledged last month that the balance of risks to inflation isshifting.