At the ECB’s January meeting, there was a unanimous decision to leave key interest rates on hold and forecasters anticipate the same neutral outcome this week. Thursday’s announcement is widely expected to leave the deposit rate at its 4.0 percent record high while the refi rate stays at 4.50 percent and the rate on the marginal lending facility at 4.75 percent. However, recent comments from Governing Council (GC) members show a widening split over how soon key rates should be lowered. For now, most would seem to prefer to wait for more data, crucially on underlying inflation and wages, but the more dovish policymakers are clearly eyeing a cut sooner rather than later. Just a couple of weeks ago, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras was calling for a move no later than June despite policy supposedly being data dependent. Still, such disagreements are only to be expected as a major shift in policy approaches and, to this end, investors will be watching especially closely the bank’s updated inflation forecast for clues about how far rates might be lowered in 2024…