Minutes of the April ECB meeting showed most participants happy to hold key interest rates at current levels but a few favoured an immediate reduction. Although members seemed to be more confident that inflation would fall to target, the majority wanted additional confirmation before delivering the first cut.

It was pointed out that, in addition to new staff forecasts, the Governing Council (GC) would have significantly more data and information by June, particularly with regard to wage dynamics. Questions remained about the sustainability of the disinflationary process, especially in services.

Members underlined the need for policy to remain data-dependent.

The minutes will simply reinforce a widely held market view that key interest rates will be lowered next month. However, beyond that, the monetary easing path remains much more uncertain.

The European Central Bank (ECB) meets about every six weeks to determine the appropriate stance of monetary policy. The precise details of the policy deliberations are kept secret for thirty years but, since the 22nd January 2015 meeting, summary version of the minutes have been made available around four weeks after the discussions have taken place.

The minutes provide a key insight into what the ECB is focusing upon when setting policy. As such they potentially can have a sizeable impact upon investor sentiment; especially at times when speculation is rife about a possible near-term change in official interest rates and/or non-conventional monetary policy instruments.