Germany's plans to drastically increase government spending will be a focus at President Christine Lagarde's press conference.

Nomura now expects the European Central Bank to lower rates only once this year, diverging from most brokerages that still see at least two reductions, after the central bank signalled the possibility of a pause at its latest meeting.

For four years, the ECB has been trying to slow the economy down, raising its key deposit rate to a record 4 percent to choke off inflation, before gradually lifting its foot off the brake since June. Next week’s expected rate cut will be the sixth in the current sequence, and will bring the deposit rate down to 2.5 percent.