The European Central Bank, as expected, left interest rates and its program of asset purchases unchanged Thursday, while tweaking its forward guidance on policy to put it in line with its newly adopted inflation target. The ECB earlier this month completed a strategic review, adopting a symmetric 2% inflation target in place of its previous aim of keeping inflation near but just below 2%. In a statement following its policy meeting, the Governing Council said it expects "key ECB interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels until it sees inflation reaching two per cent well ahead of the end of its projection horizon and durably for the rest of the projection horizon, and it judges that realized progress in underlying inflation is sufficiently advanced to be consistent with inflation stabilizing at 2% over the medium term." The ECB said this "may also imply a transitory period in which inflation is moderately above target."