The ECB cut its policy rate to 2% last month, half its level of a year earlier, after taming a surge in prices that followed the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In notes dated July 24, Goldman said it no longer expects the ECB to deliver a rate cut this year, while J.P. Morgan has pushed its rate-cut forecast to October from September previously. On Thursday, the ECB held policy rates unchanged at 2% after having cut interest rates eight times since June 2024.

The European Central Bank is leaving interest rates unchanged as it waits to see the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the economy before deciding whether to cut rates again.

The European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged at 2% as expected on Thursday, taking a break after a year of policy easing to wait for clarity over Europe's future trade relations with the United States.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Risks to the euro zone inflation outlook remain balanced as the changes since June broadly offset each other, European Central Bank board member Piero Cipollone said in a newspaper interview.

Markets are pricing in the ECB keeping its deposit rate at 2%, having reduced it by 25 basis points eight times over the last year as inflation cooled and the eurozone’s economic growth struggled for traction.