ECB March meeting: warming up to a rate cut

The ECB, as widely expected, left its policy rates unchanged . The downward revision of the inflation path , as well as comments made by President Lagarde during the press conference made clear that the ECB is moving towards a rate cut. However, in order to feel “sufficiently confident“ to start eas ing , the ECB still needs to see more data and Lagarde hinted strongly at the June meeting at the point when this would be the case . We continue to expect the first rate cut to take place in June.