BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Central Bank`s policy-setting governing council was scheduled to convene here for its regular monthly meeting on interest rates as oil prices hovered around all-time highs.
The ECB usually holds its rate-setting meetings in its headquarters on Frankfurt. But twice a year the council travels to another city in the 12-country eurozone.
No ECB watchers were expecting the bank to announce any changes in borrowing costs in the single currency area.
The ECB has held its central "refi" refinancing rate at 2.00 percent since June 2003, refusing thus far to follow the lead of the United States Federal Reserve or the Bank of England and tighten monetary conditions.
With oil prices surging to ever new highs, the guardian of the euro is finding itself in an increasingly difficult dilemma.
On the one hand, runaway oil prices fuel headline inflation in the single currency area, which the ECB has vowed to keep below 2.0 percent.
On the other, they put the brakes on economic growth. And in the case of the lacklustre eurozone economy, that could choke off the modest recovery altogether.
The rate decision was scheduled to be announced at 1:45 pm (1145 GMT) and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet would explain the reasoning behind the decision at a news conference afterwards at 2:30 pm (1230 GMT).
With no rate changes expected, the markets would be waiting instead to hear whether Trichet is becoming increasingly concerned about the growth prospects for the 12 countries that share the euro.