European Central Bank (ECB) governors overcame divisions on Thursday to agree on a "big bang" package of monetary easing measures, aiming to support the eurozone economy through external shocks.

A key interest rate deeper into negative territory, new net purchases of government and corporate debt, and support to struggling banks were all agreed at the Frankfurt meeting, a spokeswoman said.

"The final showdown has started with a big bang. The ECB just announced a big policy package to revive the eurozone economy and to bring inflation back to target," said ING analyst Carsten Brzeski.

Looking in more detail at the measures, the interest rate on banks' deposits with the ECB will drop to -0.5 percent, from -0.4 previously.

Negative rates mean lenders pay the central bank to park their cash in Frankfurt.

The biggest question ahead of Thursday was whether the central bank would restart "quantitative easing" (QE) net purchases of bonds, which amounted to 2.6 trillion euros (2.9 trillion U.S. dollars), between 2015 and 2018.

Despite public opposition from governing council members like Germany's Jens Weidmann or Dutchman Klaas Knot, QE will resume from November 1, at a pace of 20 billion euros per month "for as long as necessary" to boost inflation.

The euro dropped after the ECB announced the stimulus package.

(With input from AFP)