It has been no secret that the European Central Bank's President, Mario Draghi believes that the European economy requires drastic action if it is going to get out of its current slump. Mr Draghi knows that each public statement that he makes will be scrutinised and have market implications - so each utterance is carefully worded.

Today he indicated that the bank is close to taking serious action to stimulate the economy; speaking at a conference in Frankfurt he said: “We will do what we must to raise inflation and inflation expectations as fast as possible, as our price-stability mandate requires.”

It will be interesting to see how fast "fast-as-possible" is, and how big ab ECB stimulus package would be.

German officials have been vocal in their opposition to any sort of 'big bang' solution to Europe's ongoing economic problems. It is believed that a rift has developed between the north and south of Europe on the issue.

The comments came after China cut its base-line lending rate for the first time in two years, indicating that the Chinese economy is slowing. With the US ending its quantitative easing program, China slowing and Japan floundering, extra pressure is being put on the EU to help to stimulate global economic activity.

The European economy has been flat-lining for some time, and each new economic indicator suggests that the situation is not going to change anytime soon. The European Commission forecasts that eurozone economies will expand by only 1.1 percent next year, and 1.7 percent in 2016.

The traditional tool that central banks use to stimulate a lagging economy is to decrease interest rates, encouraging more economic activity. EU rates are already at a historic low of 0.5 percent.