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The European Central Bank is getting ready to announce details of the unprecedented programme of government bond-buying it hopes will lift the bloc out of recession and a vortex of falling prices.

Convening in Cyprus on Thursday, President Mario Draghi and his 25-member governing council will be signing-off on plans to purchase €60bn-a-month in government and private sector assets first announced in January.   The move came after the ECB president fought a protracted struggle with the eurozone's creditor bloc to unleash a wave of stimulus and rescue the bloc from deflation. Thursday's meeting of the ECB is expected to iron out a number of the technicalities involved in the package, such as the proportion of risk which will be shared by the eurozone’s national central banks and the ECB.   Mr Draghi is also likely to be quizzed on the open-ended nature of the asset purchases. Speaking earlier this year, the Italian said the intervention would run to September 2016, or until the ECB saw "a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation" towards its 2pc target rate... "The central bank has introduced QE at a time when many see signs that the cycle may be turning for the better in the eurozone," said Mauro Vittorangeli, of Allianz Global Investors.

"The big question for markets in coming months will be how long QE will last if the cycle starts to pick up. In those circumstances, it is possible that the ECB might decide to taper before September 2016," he added.   Mr Draghi is also likely to face questions on Greece's funding crisis. The ECB could move to restore normal lending operations to Greek banks after refusing to accept the country's bonds as collateral in February.   Speaking to the European Parliament last week, Mr Draghi said the bank was “ready to reinstate the waiver as soon as the governing council will decide that the conditions for a successful completion of the programme are in place”.   The Bank will also release its latest set of economics forecasts. Economists expect growth will be revised up from the 1pc annual GDP increase predicted in December.   The collapse in global energy prices is expected to see inflation revised downwards for 2015, and begin to approach, rather than hit, the 2pc target rate by the end of the ECB's forecast horizon in 2017, according to Societe Generale.