December 5, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 29,1423

BERLIN, Dec 4: The German banking federation BdB on Wednesday urged the European Central Bank to cut its key “refi” refinancing rate by half a percentage point at its policy-setting meeting this week.

Most ECB watchers believe it to be a foregone conclusion that the ECB will lower its refi rate from 3.25pc to 2.75pc when its governing council convenes on Thursday following a series of comments by top bank officials who appeared to be actively paving the way for such a move.

BdB said, “the large majority of our economic and monetary policy committee believe that a half-point rate cut would be desirable this week.”—AFP