The first policy setting meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council for 2024 saw the Central Bank maintain its key deposit rate at 4%. This was very much in line with expectations. It represented the third policy meeting in-a-row that the ECB has not hiked rates. It started its tightening cycle back in July 2022 with the last rate hike occurring in September of last year. In total, the ECB has increased rates by 450bps over this period.