Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, warned that growth forecasts published only last month would have to be revised downwards in a sign of the ferocity of the downturn.

Even after yesterday's cut in its main policy interest rate from 2.5 per cent to 2 per cent, official borrowing costs had not reached a floor, Mr Trichet said. Pointedly, he did not rule out resorting to the use of tools other than interest rates to stimulate the economy, such as government bond purchases.

However, Mr Trichet all but excluded a cut at the ECB's February meeting, three weeks away, saying that further bad economic news had been factored in and the next “important” policy meeting would be in March.