The release is arriving as talks intensify over where borrowing costs will settle after five cuts in the deposit rate, to 2.75%. With inflation on course for 2% this year, officials agree that more reductions are coming — particularly with the region’s economy flatlined. But where precisely the sweet spot lies is proving controversial.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is about to throw a crucial piece of information into the debate over where euro-zone interest rates are headed.
Fresh estimates for the neutral rate — a theoretical level that neither limits nor spurs demand in the economy — will be published Friday. President Christine Lagarde has said she and her colleagues “will operate on the basis” of the paper to help determine “what our monetary-policy stance should be.”
