The ECB left its monetary policy stance unchanged, as expected.
However, the guidance in the statement was altered with the ECB citing factors that would further increase confidence in achieving the inflation goal and lead to a rate cut.
The “sufficiently long duration” needed to keep rates unchanged was also dropped suggesting a rate cut in June is a high possibility.
President Lagarde repeats that the ECB does not target FX levels – we see increasing scope for further EUR/USD declines.