by Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to further cut interest rates at its meeting on Thursday, with the institution believing in particular that inflation in the euro zone is more under control.

This rate cut, which would be the first consecutive cut decided by the ECB in 13 years, would demonstrate the central bank’s desire to focus its attention on ways to protect economic growth rather than focusing on the fight against inflation .

“Trends in the real economy and inflation support a rate cut,” said Holger Schmieding, an economist at Berenberg.

Inflation in the currency bloc fell below 2% in September for the first time since mid-2021, to 1.8% at an annual rate, according to Eurostat’s preliminary estimate. The final indicator will be known on Thursday.

However, the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, and her colleagues should not give precise details on Thursday on the institution’s future decisions and repeat that they will be taken “meeting by meeting” based on the data.

However, many economists believe that additional cuts could occur at each of the next ECB meetings.

“The implicit message will probably be that another decline is very likely in December unless the data improves,” said Paul Hollingsworth, economist at BNP-Paribas.

( Camille Raynaud)

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