European Central Bank calls emergency meeting to discuss market turmoil

European Central Bank (ECB) is set to hold ad hoc Governing Council meeting on Wednesday at 0900 GMT to discuss the recent sell-off in government bond markets, sparking speculation it could announce measures to tackle surging borrowing costs in weaker eurozone economies.

ECB spokesperson said: "The Governing Council will have an ad-hoc meeting on Wednesday to discuss current market conditions.”

This unscheduled meeting comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision on Wednesday, when the US central bank is expected to raise rates by 0.75 percentage points.

The last time the ECB held an unscheduled meeting during market stress it rolled out the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, a 1.7 trillion euro ($1.78 trillion) bond buying scheme that proved to be its main tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.