The European Central Bank on Thursday stuck to its gradual timetable for winding down bond purchases in the third quarter without putting a firm date on when it will raise interest rates despite intensifying inflationary pressures in the eurozone.

Policymakers on the central bank’s governing council, who met this week in Frankfurt, face a dilemma of how drastically to tighten monetary policy in response to record inflation while the risk grows of a sharp economic downturn caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ECB kept its main policy rate unchanged at minus 0.5 per cent and repeated its statement that the “calibration of net purchases for the third quarter will be data-dependent and reflect the governing council’s evolving assessment of the outlook”.