Is this the turning point for interest rates?

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• unanimously agreed to stop raising interest rates for the first time in 15 months.

• Eurozone central bank governors

• wage agreements with unions next spring show an easing of pay growth — a vital step to bring down core inflation, which excludes energy and food, from its current level of 4.3 per cent.

• The eurozone economy contracted 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, while inflation in the single currency bloc also fell below 3 per cent for the first time in more than two years.

• If headline eurozone inflation heads sustainably below 3 per cent, Stournaras reckons a rate cut could come “in the middle of next year”

• The bank downgraded its views of both UK output and supply in its November forecasts on Thursday, as it held rates at 5.25 per cent, warning that pay pressures remained more resilient than it had expected and that unemployment may have to rise further than expected to bear down on prices.

• In the US, that brutal set of rate rises has helped curb CPI inflation to 3.7 per cent, far below a peak that neared 10 per cent