The European Central Bank is preparing to take monetary policy into uncharted territory this week as it fights to prevent the 18-nation bloc from being sucked into a Japanese-style deflationary trap.

Mario Draghi, the president of Europe's central bank, is expected to unveil a package of measures designed to boost eurozone lending and stimulate growth, including reducing one of its key interest rates to below zero.

-- The Bank of England also considered introducing negative interest rates at the height of the eurozone debt crisis. However, Martin Weale, an external member of the Bank of England's rate-setting committee, said last year that introducing negative rates in the UK would have signalled "a change in the nature of money as we know it".