Both the major central banks in Europe left their interest rates unchanged today, as expected.

At today’s meeting of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, policymakers decided that the minimum bid rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 3.50%, 4.50% and 2.50% respectively.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee also voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 5.25%. The previous change in Bank Rate was a surprise 25 bps increase on January 11.

CIBC World Markets reports that, after leaving rates on hold, “the ECB’s president has basically hinted at a March rate hike, by switching from a ‘close monitoring’ to a ‘strongly vigilant’ policy language. All this is consistent with our own call for Euro rates, with a 25 basis point rate rise now looking extremely likely at the March 8th Governing Council Meeting.”

CIBC says that a 25 bps rate rise now looks very much like a done deal. “Thereafter, ECB president Trichet gave no clues, but this does not mean that we cannot expect further policy tightening after a March move: after all, the ECB president Never pre-commits more than a month in advance. This was not going to change today, so we are highly doubtful over recent market speculation that this ‘may be it’ after March.”