FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank cut interest rates again on Thursday as inflation slows and economic growth falters, but provided no substantial clues to its next step, even as investors bet on steady policy easing in the months ahead.
The ECB lowered its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.50% in a widely telegraphed move, following up on a similar cut in June as inflation is now within striking distance of its 2% target and the domestic economy is skirting a recession.
With the cut widely expected, investor attention has already shifted to what will come next and how ECB decisions will be shaped by the US Federal Reserve’s widely expected start to its own rate-cutting next week. But the ECB, the central bank for the 20 countries that share the euro, gave nothing away.
“We are not pre-committing to a particular rate path,” ECB President Christine Lagarde told a press conference, using the bank’s standard formula for what it calls its “data-dependent”, meeting-by-meeting approach to policy.
“We are looking at a whole battery of indicators,” she said, noting that September was likely to deliver a low reading of inflation simply because of statistical base effects.
Euro assets were little changed by the move and by the absence of clues on the future rate path, which analysts interpreted as evidence of the ECB’s caution.
“Given that the ECB’s track record of predicting inflation on its way up is rather weak, the ECB will want to be entirely sure before engaging in more aggressive rate cuts,” said Carsten Brzeski, Global Head of Macro at ING.
Lagarde painted a mixed picture of inflation in the euro area continuing to be sustained by rising wages even as overall labour cost pressures moderated and were absorbed by companies.
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