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At the regular meeting of the ECB Shadow Council held on Thursday 28 May, there was a two-thirds majority in favour of lowering the ECB's refinancing rate at the next policy meeting on June 4, thus concluding that rates are not appropriate at the current level. Five of the 15 members said rates should be left unchanged. Five expressed a preference for a small rate cut to 0.75 %, the remaining five argued in favour of a cut to 0.5 %. When the vote was taken, a majority settled on the recommendation of a cut by 25 basis points to 0.75 %. Artikel

Are the latest signs that the worst might be over for the economy of the euro area enough of a reason to end the cycle of easing rates? Monthly pre-meeting discussion of the ECB Shadow Council Artikel

At the regular meeting of the ECB Shadow Council held on Thursday 30 March, there was a large majority in favour of lowering the ECB's refinancing rate below 1 %..Only two members sided with ECB officials who have recently stressed that 1 % should be the floor of the policy rate in order to preserve the functioning of the money market. Of the 15 members, one argued in favour of a cut by 100 basis points to 0.25 %, five were in favour of a cut by 75 basis points to 0.5 % and seven in favour of a cut by 50 basis points to 0.75 %.The remaining two members advocated a cut of 25 basis points to 1 %. Artikel

The other G10 central banks have slashed their key rates to 0.5 percent and below. The ECB seems to want to stop at 1 percent. For good reasons? Artikel