The European Central Bank is widely expected to announce its third interest rate cut of the year at its Thursday meeting, after policymakers flagged reduced inflation risks and a weakening growth outlook. Headline price rises in the euro area , coming in below the central bank's 2% target for the first time in three years. A cut on Thursday would see the ECB reducing rates at consecutive meetings for the first time in 13 years.
Expectations for a faster pace of monetary easing have built since the ECB's Sept. 12 meeting, when market pricing suggested just one more rate cut this year, rather than the two priced in as of Thursday morning. Along with the latest inflation print on Oct.
1, that shift in sentiment has come amid . ECB President Christine Lagarde also swayed markets, when she said the latest data readings "strengthen our confidence that inflation will return to target in a timely manner." Another key factor is the euro zone growth outlook.
The ECB trimmed its euro zone growth forecast for 2024 last month on the back of weaker domestic demand, now projecting an 0.8% GDP rise, compared with 0.9% previously.
Some of its biggest economies continue to face major challenges, including in Germany and a looming in France. Financial markets have fully priced in two more 25-basis-point interest rate cuts from the ECB this year, expected to take place on Thursday and at the central bank's next monetary policy meeting in December. That would take the deposit facility — the ECB.
