"The ECB kept all policy measures unchanged at today's meeting, and President Draghi had a hawkish tone during the Q&A session as he said the Governing Council discussed whether to remove the 'lower levels' from the forward guidance on policy rates, notes Danske Bank Markets.

"In our view, a next step from the ECB when moving in a less dovish monetary policy direction is to remove the 'lower levels' from the forward guidance. However, according to Draghi this is a very small step and in our view it also does not mean the ECB will hike policy rates in the near future," Danske argues.

"We expect the ECB to continue to communicate that policy rates will remain at present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the QE purchases. Hence, it should not start to communicate that policy rates could be hiked before the QE purchases have stopped running," Danske projects".

Source: Danske Bank Research, efxnews.