by Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi
Reuters.com
FRANKFURT, June 6 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank was all but certain to cut interest rates from record highs on Thursday and was likely to acknowledge it had made progress in its battle against high inflation, while also stressing the fight was not yet over.
ECB policymakers have clearly telegraphed their intention to lower borrowing costs after seeing inflation in the 20 countries that share the euro fall from more than 10% in late 2022 to just above their 2% target in recent months.
The broad-based decline was seen as more than enough for the ECB to begin undoing the steepest streak of interest rate hikes in its history, which were a response to spiralling prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.