Our sense from this morning’s MNI Connect event with Bank of Finland Governor Rehn is that the bar to him not voting for a cut in April is quite high. In other words, notable hawkish surprises to upcoming flash PMI (March 24) data, flash inflation data (April 1), and the Bank Lending Survey (April 15) will be required for him to support holding rates at 2.50%.
- Rehn stressed downside growth risks emanating from US trade frictions, while noting that any growth impulse from increased European defence spending would take time to be realised. Meanwhile, he appeared quite relaxed about the balance of risks to inflation.
- We view Rehn as an important barometer of the median Governing Council view, often striking a centrist/dovish leaning tone.
- However, movements in near-term ECB implied rates were only modest (13.5bps of easing priced through April vs 13bps before the event), with the aforementioned data releases keeping the decision a close call. There continue to be 46bps of easing priced through year-end (i.e, a deposit rate of just over 2%).
- Euribor futures remain -0.5 to -3.0 ticks through the blues, weighed by today’s softness in core EGBs.
| Meeting Date | ESTR ECB-Dated OIS (%) | Difference Vs. Current Effective ESTR Rate (bp) |
| Apr-25 | 2.282 | -13.5 |
| Jun-25 | 2.106 | -31.1 |
| Jul-25 | 2.063 | -35.4 |
| Sep-25 | 1.993 | -42.4 |
| Oct-25 | 1.981 | -43.6 |
| Dec-25 | 1.958 | -45.9 |
| Feb-26 | 1.958 | -45.9 |
| Mar-26 | 1.967 | -45.0 |
| Source: MNI/Bloomberg. |