To be sure, it is a sign of the scale of the downturn that has ravaged the eurozone over the last 12 months that the ECB is meeting at all this month.

Like the financial markets across Europe, the ECB normally winds down this time of year for the European summer.

But as a reminder of the fragile state of the global economy, data released Wednesday showed eurozone retail sales coming in worse than expected in June, amid concerns about wages and jobs as the recession catches up with the currency bloc's labour market.

The volume of retail trade in the eurozone fell month by month by 0.2 percent in June, the Europe Union's (EU) statistics office said. Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent rise.

This followed data released last week showing eurozone unemployment jumping to 9.4 percent in June to reach its highest level in a decade.

In the meantime, consumer prices in the eurozone fell more than forecast from minus 0.1 percent in June to minus 0.6 percent last month, the EU's statistics office said last week.