The European Central Bank's council meets today with economists convinced it will keep interest rates unchanged despite cuts by the world's other top central banks.
The ECB expects economic growth in the euro zone to remain robust but it still sees lingering price risks from last year's euro weakness and oil price rises.
While the US Federal Reserve cut rates by a full percentage point last month and the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan followed with modest easing last week, the ECB has kept its benchmark rate steady since October.
Though the ECB acknowledged the US economic slowdown was sharper than earlier expected and the global outlook had dimmed, it repeated that euro area growth would stay robust.
Inflation in the Irish and Spanish economies eased somewhat in January, but stayed well above the central bank's two per cent limit while consumer prices in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands jumped, disappointing hopes for a slowdown.
But last month's increases were largely attributed to one-off factors such as tax increases and a spike in food prices caused by the mad cow crisis.
Reuters