The European Central Bank is expected to lower interest rates again this week as anxiety about inflation in the eurozone fades and concerns over sluggish growth mount.
Inflation fell to 1.8 percent across the 20 members of the euro area in September, the first time it has been below the ECB’s target of two percent since 2021.
While the rate is expected to tick up again towards the end of the year, the sense that consumer prices are back under control has grown.
“Victory against inflation is in sight,” French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who sits on the ECB’s rate-setting governing council, said last week.
“A cut is very likely,” he told Franceinfo radio, adding that “it will not be the last”.
ECB policymakers will meet in Slovenia Thursday to decide whether to reduce rates further and up the tempo of cuts. The central bank is headquartered …