Samy Chaar, Chief Economist at Lombard Odier, and Danae Kyriakopoulou, Chief economist and Director of Research at OMFIF, discuss the policy outlook for the European Central Bank. They analyse the macroeconomic backdrop behind the recent dovish signals coming from the ECB, especially the weakening economic outlook in Italy and Germany and global headwinds from trade policy uncertainty. They further discuss the ECB’s toolbox and capacity to deal with future challenges as well as the broader policy environment including the need to reduce macroeconomic imbalances and the need for other policy levers to support the recovery.