The European Central Bank’s interest rate decision on Thursday could provide important clues about the outlook for eurozone monetary policy for several months to come, says Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital.

He says the decision will shed light on how far the ECB is prepared to continue practising interest rate “smoothing” – sticking to regular interest rate changes – as opposed to responding more flexibly to what he describes as “the most severe macroeconomic and financial shock seen in decades”.