Rates Cut

The European Central Bank has cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.05%, and introduced new stimulus measures.

The ECB had earlier cut its rate from 0.25% to 0.15% in June, and also became the first major central bank to introduce negative interest rates.

It will also launch an asset purchase program, which will buy debt products from banks.

It is hoped this move will add liquidity to the financial system and revive lending.

The move falls short of a program of buying government bonds - a process known as quantitative easing (QE), and one which the US Federal Reserve has undertaken.

ECB boss Mario Draghi said that QE had been discussed by the bank.

"Some of our governing council members were in favor of doing more than I've just presented, and some were in favor of doing less," he said.

"So our proposal strikes the mid-road.... a broad asset purchase program was discussed, and some governors made clear that they would like to do more."

The ECB has been under pressure to kick-start the eurozone economy, as manufacturing output has slowed and inflation has fallen to just 0.3%.

In his latest blog BBC Business Editor Robert Peston described today's move as "a last roll of the dice".

"The European Central Bank has now almost exhausted its ammunition for preventing the Eurozone sliding into a devastating deflationary, contractionary spiral," he said.