• Christine Lagarde will speak again on Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
• ECB President is unlikely to mention monetary policy in her panel discussion.
• European Central Bank held rates for the second straight meeting in December. 

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), is set to speak on Friday at 10:00 GMT at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. It will be the last of her three appearances at the WEF Annual Meeting this week.

Having spoken on the "How to Trust Economics" panel on Wednesday and "Uniting Europe's Markets" on Thursday, ECB President Lagarde will participate in a panel discussion on "The Global Economic Outlook".

Friday’s debate will offer views on how policymakers would balance the need for action on growth and inflation by implementing the right tools while ensuring sustained and long-term economic growth. Lagarde’s comments will be closely scrutinized for any hints on the Euro area growth and inflation outlook, which could have a significant impact on policy-making.

However, she is unlikely to mention monetary policy during her commentary on the economic outlook, as the ECB has entered its “blackout period” ahead of next week’s policy meeting.

On Wednesday, Lagarde spoke in a Bloomberg interview on the sidelines of the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, noting that “it is likely that we will cut rates by the summer.”

Christine Lagarde’s remarks prompted markets to dial back early rate cut expectations. ECB policymakers have continued to push back against aggressive rate cut expectations, suggesting that the central bank will remain data-dependent on its interest rate outlook.

The European Central Bank held rates for the second meeting in a row in December, as it revised down its growth and inflation forecasts. “The Governing Council’s future decisions will ensure that its policy rates will be set at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary,” the ECB said in its accompanying statement