European Central Bank expected to hold firm on interest rates this week

The governing council will meet in Frankfurt on Thursday to assess its next move

Deutsche Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel and ECB president Christine Lagarde. Photo: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

Sarah Collins

Although markets expect interest rates to come down next year, borrowers will not feel the benefits until months afterwards.

Bar a major upset, the European Central Bank (ECB), whose president is Christine Lagarde, is set to keep rates on hold for a second time when its governing council meets in Frankfurt on Thursday, after eurozone inflation dropped to a two-year low of 2.4pc last month, just shy of the bloc’s 2pc target.