by Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi

Frankfurt (Reuters) – The European Central Bank (BCE) left unchanged its main key rate at 2.0%on Thursday, as expected, marking a break in its monetary easing cycle while the vagueness remains on the final customs duties which will be applied to European imports in the United States and that inflation should stabilize around the institution’s objective.

After eight borrowing costs since June 2024, the inflation rate in the euro zone returned to the 2% target of the ECB, and Frankfurt gave no indication of its next decision, leaving investors in uncertainty.

The latest threat from US President Donald Trump to impose 30% from imports on imports from the European Union (EU) from August 1 has further complicated Frankfurt’s reflections.

True to its principle of an approach on a case -by -case basis, the ECB has declared that it would not engage in advance on an interest rate trajectory and that decisions would be taken according to the available data.

The decision to leave the unchanged rates was taken unanimously.

Christine Lagarde, president of the ECB, said Thursday that, even if inflation prospects were more uncertain than usual due to trade tensions and the appreciation of the euro, the price forecasts remained anchored around 2% both in the short term.

“When I look at my inflation forecasts, they are securely anchored around 2% in the short term, but also in the longer term,” she said at the press conference that followed the institution’s monetary policy decision

Operators revised their bets on Thursday on a drop in interest rates in September, estimating at 20% the probability of a drop of 25 basic points, compared to around 32% earlier in the day.

Two sources have told Reuters that ECB officials would place the high bar for a drop in interest rates in September and that they should see a significant deterioration in growth and inflation before acting a new softening.

The strength of the euro questions

The ECB has lowered its 25 -point interest rates for the last time on June 5, while suggesting that it would then take a break because inflation has reached its objective by 2% and that US trade policy remains uncertain.

The deposit rate had climbed to 4.0%, its highest level since the creation of the euro in 1999, after ten consecutive recovery between July 2022 and September 2023.

But the inflation of the euro zone reached in June the target of the BCE, confirming that the era of the price of prices is over and that the debate could now relate to the need to soften monetary policy in order to prevent inflation from becoming too low due to the gloom of growth.

The appreciation of the euro against the US dollar was also recently a source of concern, while a stronger currency makes European exports less competitive and slows down inflation.

The Council of Governors of the ECB has however drawn up a rather balanced table in the economy of the euro zone, the uncertainties linked to the commercial policy being compensated by public investments in the longer term.

“Thanks in part to the interest rate reductions decided by the Council of Governors, the economy has so far shown himself generally resistant in a difficult global environment,” said the ECB.

Christine Lagarde pointed out to journalists that investments in the defense and infrastructure announced by certain countries in the euro zone, including Germany, should stimulate growth.

“She is a bit ‘Hawkish’,” said Arne Petimezas, research director at AFS Group, about the head of the Central Bank, highlighting her commentatities on inflation and economic prospects.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the euro area, however, is experiencing very low growth and companies are starting to feel the negative effects of customs duties on their profits.

However, according to two diplomatic sources, Brussels and Washington are moving towards a trade agreement which would provide a basic surcharge of 15% on European products imported into American territory, similar to that announced between Japan and the United States, a scenario which would be worse than that envisaged by the ECB in its basic economic projections, but better than the “serious” scenario that it had considered in early June.

(Francesco Canepa, Balazs Koranyi, Diana Mandia, edited by Kate Entringer)

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