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ECB chief Christine Lagarde douses talk of rate cuts even as inflation moves towards 2% target

While falling energy costs have resulted in lower inflation, the banks’s decision on when to begin cutting rates is far from straightforward

Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), played down expectations around potential rate cuts. Picture: Getty

There was good news in the inflation data out last week, which showed that the rate of price increases in Ireland was slowing.

Inflation stood at 2.7 per cent in January, down 1.4 per cent on the previous month on the back of falling energy prices, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) last week.

As well as lower energy prices, there was also good news on cost of food with prices estimated ...