The European Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates for the second time this year at its Thursday meeting, but disagreement among policymakers may be set to increase amid tariff uncertainty and a potential ramp-up in regional defense spending.

Markets had on Wednesday fully priced in a quarter-point rate cut for the March meeting, taking the ECB’s key rate to 2.5% — down from its peak of 4% in the middle of last year. A further reduction to 2% by the end of the year was also priced in.

A relatively swift pace of monetary easing has been expected over the last nine months, with euro zone headline inflation coming in consistently below 3%, and economic growth remaining weak. The ECB’s Governing Council has almost always made its decisions unanimously and provided relatively firm guidance of its next steps to guide market expectations.

However, the central bank now appears within touching distance of the hotly-debated “neutral rate” at which policy is neither stimulating nor restricting the economy, when rates would be expected to be kept on hold. Policymakers disagree on exactly where this level is, and whether rates might need to be brought even lower than that level in response to factors such as low growth.

ECB President Christine Lagarde told CNBC in January she believed the range was between 1.75% and 2.25%, down from her previous estimate of between 1.75% and 2.5% — but the ECB itself has not issued a firmer indication since.

Bank of America Global Research analysts said in a Wednesday note that following this week’s meeting they expected increased internal dispute between policymakers.

“This is the last ‘easy’ rate cut in our views, as disagreements grow,” they said. However, they reiterated a view ahead of market expectations for the ECB to slash rates to 1.5% by September.

“The debate among ECB policymakers has picked up over recent weeks,” noted Goldman Sachs analysts, who said they expected the voting Governing Council to focus on whether broad financial conditions, bank lending conditions, business reports and lending indicate rates are still restrictive.

The U.S. has launched tariffs on its biggest trading partners which are expected to cause a slowdown in global sectors including automotives — but the duties might yet be pared back. U.S. President Donald Trump has said the European Union will be next in-line for high duties — however, the prospect of a negotiation also remains in play. The impact of such tariffs would also be uncertain, with a slowdown in trade dragging on economic activity, but also potentially weighing on the euro, raising the cost of imports.

European governments are meanwhile gearing up to hike spending on defense as relations with the U.S. over the Ukraine war fracture.

Lagarde is likely to be questioned on the potential impact of the deal announced this week in Germany between the country’s expected next coalition partners. An agreement on reforming German debt rules has not yet been finalized, but is expected to unlock up to a trillion euros in spending on defense and infrastructure, with the euro sharply rallying on the news Wednesday.

Analysts at Rabobank said euro gains were “in part due to expectations that room for further ECB rates cuts will be more confined,” with the reforms and higher spending bringing the “promise of an uplift in economic growth.”

A broader move toward European rearmament would represent “a debt-financed fiscal expansion that would spur economic activity, allow some reflation, and cause the ECB to reconsider the extent of its policy rate cuts going forward,” Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie, said Tuesday.

Despite all of this uncertainty, some analysts do not expect the ECB to significantly update its guidance on Thursday, which in January stressed that inflation was expected to converge toward target, monetary policy remains restrictive, and that the central bank will continue its data-dependent approach.

A particular focus will be on whether it alters the message that policy is “restrictive,” and whether there is a suggestion that a rate hold may be coming at the next meeting in April.

“Given the unusual uncertainty created by the ongoing political and geopolitical developments, we expect the Governing Council of the ECB to be driven this week by a desire to maximise optionality about subsequent moves,” Citi analysts said Wednesday.

“We think this may translate into a more cautious communication, no longer asserting that monetary policy is restrictive. We would not read this as a sign that a pause in the easing process is forthcoming, however. Shifting geopolitics may eventually generate reflationary fiscal policies, but in the near term, they will likely increase the argument for monetary easing.”

Germany’s prospective fiscal U-turn could prove transformational for the country’s struggling economy and for European defense — but Berlin lawmakers don’t have much time to make the historic shift happen.

Fiscal and economic policies were seen as highly contentious during Germany’s previous ruling coalition and contributed to its eventual break-up at the end of last year. Amid ongoing negotiations for a new governing alliance, the Christian Democratic Union and its Christian Social Union affiliate — which led in the February polls — and the Social Democratic Party appear to have achieved something of a breakthrough.

On Tuesday, likely-to-be chancellor Friedrich Merz and other political leaders announced plans to reform the long standing fiscal pillar known as Germany’s debt brake, specifically to allow for higher defense spending. They also revealed a new 500 billion euros ($535 billion) special fund for infrastructure.

Materializing these plans will mean changes to the German constitution, which requires the support of a two-thirds majority in parliament. This would likely work at present — but would be very difficult to achieve once the newly elected parliament representatives come together for the first time later this month.

A vote on the constitutional tweaks could therefore be pushed through within the week.

The plans have sparked a widespread market reaction, with the German DAX jumping 3.4% by 12:51 p.m. London time, as German companies led the pan-European Stoxx 600 higher. Construction and manufacturing firms notched significant gains, as did German lenders.

German borrowing costs soared. The yield on German 10-year bonds, which are seen as the euro zone benchmark, were last up by over 25 basis points, and the 2-year yield spiked by more than 16 basis points.

Dezernat Zukunft’s Schuster-Johnson told CNBC the market reaction suggested surprise at the pace and magnitude of the proposed changes.

“The bottom line is Germany is back and Germany is funded,” he said. “This move we’ve seen last night is really remarkable. you know Germans sometimes move late and sometimes delayed when big steps are needed however this is a big step and when they take it they do it so very radically.”

Private sector job creation slowed to a crawl in February, fueling concerns of an economic slowdown, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Companies added just 77,000 new workers for the month, well off the upwardly revised 186,000 in January and below the 148,000 Dow Jones consensus estimate, according to seasonally adjusted figures from ADP.

The total was the smallest increase since July and comes at a time when worries are rising that economic growth is slowing and worries brew that President Donald Trump’s tariff plans will spark another round of inflation. ADP said annual pay rose 4.7% in February, the same as the prior month.

“Policy uncertainty and a slowdown in consumer spending might have led to layoffs or a slowdown in hiring last month,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “Our data, combined with other recent indicators, suggests a hiring hesitancy among employers as they assess the economic climate ahead.”

Though most economic data points remain positive, sentiment indicators have shown rising fears among both business executives and consumers that the Trump tariffs could raise prices and slow growth. In the extreme scenario, the combination could cause stagflation, a condition of flat or negative growth and rising prices.

The ADP report reflected some of those concerns, as a sector that lumps together trade, transportation and utility jobs saw a loss of 33,000 positions. Education and health services reported a decline of 28,000, while information services decreased by 14,000 at a time of uncertainty for artificial intelligence-related companies, despite Trump’s commitment to advancing AI efforts.

On the positive side, leisure and hospitality jobs jumped by 41,000, while professional and business services added 27,000 and financial activities and construction both saw gains of 25,000. Manufacturing also reported an increase of 18,000, countering the ISM manufacturing survey for the month that indicated companies were pulling back on hiring.

Services and goods-producing were in unusual balance for the month, adding 36,000 and 42,000 respectively on the month. As the U.S. is a services-based economy, that side usually dominates in job creation.

Employment growth tilted towards large firms in February, with companies employing 500 or more workers reporting a gain of 37,000 while those with fewer than 50 employees saw a loss of 12,000.

The ADP count serves as a precursor to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report on nonfarm payrolls, due Friday. However, the two reports can differ substantially due to different methodologies. In January, the BLS reported an increase of just 111,000 in private payrolls, well below the ADP count.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect Friday’s report to show job gains of 170,000 and an unemployment rate steady at 4%.