An unfortunate casualty of the global economic crisis has been the European Central Bank’s summer holiday. Before central banking became so fraught, the ECB would, metaphorically at least, pack its bathing costume in July and not return to serious business until September. But this Thursday its governing council will gather in balmy Frankfurt, Germany, for the third August out of the past four.

With signs of economic stabilisation across the 16-country eurozone, nobody expects a change in interest rates; the general feeling in markets is that rates will remain at 1 per cent for a year or more. But the meeting will serve at least one purpose: it will highlight the somewhat split personality of the ECB these days. Instinctively, it prefers to maintain a steady hand. It dislikes central bank “activism” – rapidly or pre-emptively adjusting policy in response to changing economic circumstances. Like Germany’s revered Bundesbank, from which it inherited many traits, it likes sometimes to remain aloof and hold fire while events play out.