Background on the European Central Bank
The European Central Bank ((ECB)) administers monetary policy for the eurozone, which consists of 19 European Union member states. During 2011, the previous ECB President Jean-Claude Triche raised interest rates twice - from 1% to 1.25% in April, and also from 1.25% to 1.50% in July. In November 2011, Mario Draghi took over the new role of ECB President. Mario Draghi has been reducing interest rates gradually down to effectively 0.00% since 2015.
(Figure 1 - ECB interest rates have been on a downward decline since 2000. Source: TradingEconomics