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HERE COMES THE ECB DECISION...

Feb 6, 2014, 17:53 IST

REUTERS/Ralph OrlowskiMario Draghi.

Heads up! We are minutes away from the release of the European Central Bank's latest decision on monetary policy, due out at 7:45 AM ET, and subsequent press conference with ECB president Mario Draghi at 8:30.

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62 of the 66 market economists polled by Bloomberg is that the ECB will leave its benchmark refinancing rate unchanged at 0.25%. Four of those economists, however - from BNP Paribas, Barclays, Danske Bank, and RBS - predict the ECB could reduce this rate by 15 basis points to 0.10%.

Many are concerned about disinflation in the eurozone - the latest data released last week revealed an unexpected drop in year-on-year inflation to 0.7% - but cutting rates to combat it probably isn't worthwhile.

"It is hard to make an argument for the decidedly marginal improvement that a 0.1-0.15 percentage point change would make," says Lorcan Roche Kelly, a strategist at Agenda Research.

"It also would do very little to improve the one short-term problem the ECB is more likely to be worried about - liquidity."

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The consensus view is that the Bank is unlikely to introduce new liquidity-provisioning measures today, but its options for the future will likely be a key topic of discussion during the press conference and Q&A with reporters.

We will have the full statement LIVE at 7:45 AM ET. Click here to refresh for the latest updates »

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