“The interest-rate cuts are making new borrowing less expensive for firms and households and loan growth is picking up,” the ECB said in a statement. “At the same time, a headwind to the easing of financing conditions comes from past interest rate hikes still transmitting to the stock of credit, and lending remains subdued overall.
The European Central Bank lowered interest rates for the sixth time since June and indicated that its cutting phase is drawing to a close as inflation cools and the economy digests seismic shifts in geopolitics.
The deposit rate was reduced by a quarter point to 2.5%, as predicted by all but one analyst in a Bloomberg survey. Officials described their monetary-policy stance as becoming “meaningfully less restrictive.”
