Stephen Pope at Spotlight Ideas said that after both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England stayed their hands on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, the market had placed an even greater onus on Mr Draghi to back up his “whatever it takes” pledge.

“After zero from Ben [Bernanke] and Mervyn [King], everything was on Mario’s shoulders and I sense he has spoken tough words, and delivered his speech [last week] in an emotional and angry tenor, but [today] missed a chance”, said Mr Pope in a note.

“What is all the nonsense about taking two weeks weeks to design the “whatever it takes” package? Why is the package not ready to roll right now? Clearly the ECB and the German staff from BUBA [the Bundesbank] are at odds”, he concluded.