Faced with a looming recession and rapidly falling inflation, Europe's leading central banks delivered hefty rate cuts Thursday as monetary authorities around the world stepped up efforts to trim the cost of money, reported the dpa. While the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting in Frankfurt lopped 50 basis points off its benchmark refinancing rate, the Bank of England meeting in London announced a more dramatic 150-basis-point reduction. Thursday's cuts in borrowing costs brought the rates in the 15-member eurozone down to 3.25 per cent and to 3 per cent in Britain with analysts expecting both banks to follow up Thursday's moves with more reductions in the coming months. "I don't exclude we could cut rates again," ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet told a press conference Thursday following the meeting of the ECB's 21-head rate-setting council. The ECB chief said the financial crisis was "broadening and intensifying" and was likely to dampen economic activity around the world and in the eurozone for a protracted period.
