Here Comes The ECB's Big Decision...

Th latest decisions from the European Central Bank on monetary policy will be announced at 12:45 GMT on Thursday.

Investors and analysts will be listening closely to ECB president Mario Draghi when he speaks at the press conference at 1.30 p.m. GMT.

This month, ECB-watchers reckon Draghi is likely to be dovish, but they don't expect any solid new announcements on monetary policy.

A lot of analysts are expecting that the ECB will announce a bigger programme of asset purchases in the first few months of next year. That's one way they could try to boost economic conditions, either by buying government bonds (usually known as quantative easing) or a wider range of corporate bonds.

Draghi has committed to boosting the amount of assets the ECB owns to around €3 trillion. The current level is about €1 trillion shy of that, meaning the banks needs to seriously up its game to get there.