ECB gets ready to pull the plug on stimulus scheme

That will make disappointing reading for policymakers at the European Central Bank (ECB), who are expected to signal today a bias towards cutting its already-negative deposit rate this year to try to boost growth and inflation

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank (ECB) will debate whether to end its huge asset purchases by year-end, in what would be its biggest step towards dismantling crisis-era stimulus credited with pulling the eurozone economy out of recession.

Financial investors are coming to terms with the end of a decade of easy money from the world’s top central banks, with the Federal Reserve on Wednesday raising interest rates for a seventh time in 3½ years in a further shift from policies used to battle the 2007-2009 financial crisis and recession.