Economists say the European Central Bank could cut interest rates as soon as today because of fears that the euro area's economy is not recovering.
This is despite the fact that top bank officials themselves caution that a cut would not do much good.
Market expectations have risen in recent days of a reduction in the ECB's benchmark rate from its current record low of 0.75% as bank's 23-member governing council gathers to debate the issue in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The euro zone economy certainly needs a boost - the ECB has recently said it will shrink 0.5% for all of this year, while unemployment has hit 12.1%.
Meanwhile, annual inflation is only 1.2%, well below the ECB's goal of just under 2%. That gives the ECB freedom to cut if it wants to.
At 0.75%, the ECB rate is still higher than at other major central banks. The Fed is at 0-0.25%, the Bank of Japan at 0-0.1% and the Bank of England at 0.5%.
ECB president Mario Draghi said at his last news conference in April that bank officials "stand ready to act" if their forecast for a recovery later this year appears to not be coming true. But economists caution that a cut is not a sure thing.
Some say that the bank may wait until its June rate meeting, when it has new staff economic projections to justify any move.
The ECB's refinancing rate determines what banks pay the ECB for credit. This in turn influences a host of other short-term rates charged by banks to consumers and companies. So an ECB cut should, in normal times, make it cheaper for companies to borrow to expand and create jobs.
Joerg Asmussen, the bank's chief of international relations, cautioned last week that the "pass-through" from any cut to the wider economy would be "limited."
The ECB has pointed out that its current record low rates are not being passed on to businesses because banks are struggling with their own financial problems.
This is especially the case in countries hardest hit by the euro zone's financial crisis such as Spain and Italy. There, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), the chief job-creators in the economy, are not getting affordable credit.
However, a rate cut might offer some help in other ways. It might lower the euro's exchange rate against other currencies, which could help exporters, whose goods become cheaper abroad.
A cut would also lower the cost of ECB emergency credit to the hardest-hit banks. That would take some pressure off their finances so that they could lend more.
The ECB has stayed away from a key tool to help stimulate an economy that is already used by the Fed, Bank of Japan, and Bank of England. Quantitative easing, or the purchase of securities with newly created money, pushes down longer-term interest rates and aims to increase the overall supply of money in the economy.
Draghi has said such a step would be difficult for the multinational ECB, since each euro zone member country's debt market is different.
Analysts say the ECB needs to find another way to spur small-business lending. One way would be to encourage banks to bundle small business loans as securities and then to use them as collateral to obtain credit from the ECB.
