The European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates steady on Thursday and is likely to eschew dramatic action to help Italy or other euro zone countries, despite the threat of political turmoil in Rome reigniting the bloc’s debt crisis.At its monthly policy meeting, the ECB held its main refinancing rate at a record-low 0.75%, in line with what the majority of economists in a Reuters poll had expected.ECB cut its forecasts for the euro zone economy for this year and next on Thursday but kept its forecasts for inflation broadly unchanged.In a new outlook given after its monthly policy meeting, the ECB foresaw gross domestic product (GDP) declining by between 0.9% and 0.1% in 2013, lowering the top end of the forecast which had held out some hope of growth this year.It also cut its forecast for growth next year to 0.0 and 2.0% from between 0.2% and 2.2% in its previous forecast.

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