FRANKFURT, GERMANY, OCT 17 (AFP/APP/DNA):European Central Bank policymakers meet Thursday with fading price pressures and weaker economic activity in the eurozone pushing them towards making another cut to interest rates.
A late downwards revision to September’s inflation data may have made the decision even easier for the members of the ECB’s rate-setting governing council.
Consumer prices in the eurozone rose by 1.7 percent year on year last month, the EU’s data agency said Thursday, 0.1 percentage points less than the initial estimate.
Before the change, September’s reading already was the first time in three years that inflation in the eurozone had dipped below the ECB’s two-percent target.
The lower-than-expected figure has added to the sense among policymakers that consumer prices are back under control after they soared in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Victory against inflation is in sight,” French central bank governor and ECB rate-setter Francois Villeroy de Galhau said last week.
“A cut is very likely,” he said of Thursday’s meeting, adding that “it will not be the last”.
From a peak of four percent, the ECB has cut its key deposit rate in two increments of 25 basis points, once in June and another time in September.
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