In a report, the chief market strategist of Barclay’s private bank, Julian Rafagou, stated that the ECB might convey the idea that interest-rate cuts might be out of the discussion at its Thursday meeting. He said: “Despite limited progress in inflation, macroeconomic dynamics in the euro area are still challenged, and geopolitical tensions pose further risks, as demonstrated by the latest round of procurement managers' indices.” Rafah indicated that, in the future, the ECB might keep interest rates at current levels until 2024, when it began to relax policies to ease economic growth and adjust to lower inflation levels.