The European Central Bank has declared an end to its three-year €2.4tn stimulus programme, announcing it will wrap up the historic scheme credited with reviving a crisis-wracked eurozone economy at the end of the year.

The decision to end the billions of euros in monthly bond purchases, a policy which had become increasingly divisive within the bank, was balanced by leaving interest rates at record lows and signalling they were unlikely to rise before September 2019 — later than some analysts had thought.

The dovish message on rates sent the euro falling sharply, dropping 1 per cent against the dollar on the day to $1.1672. European stock and bond markets rallied, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index up 1.38 per cent, and yields on the benchmark German 10-year Bund falling 5.4 basis points to 0.424 per cent.