Summer cancelled.

The European Central Bank is not one to cave in to calls for lower interest rates from market commentators and politicians. But what if those calls are obviously right? In March 2003 the bank disappointed many by cutting rates by a mere quarter-point to 2.5%. The ECB next meets on May 8, 2003 against an increasingly gloomy outlook for growth in the euro zone. Yet recent comments from ECB officials suggest that the bank is in no rush to cut again. The euro area's economy grew by only 0.7% at an annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2002, and has begun this year sluggishly. Over the past couple of years, while Germany's economy has been stuck in first gear, France's has motored along nicely. Now the French engine is sputtering too.