As European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers gather today for their first meeting of 2015, the backdrop is a 0.2 percent annual drop in consumer prices, the first in more than five years. For President Mario Draghi, who wants to open the money tap, the data may push the central bank closer to the unprecedented step of buying government bonds to revive growth and inflation.

ECB officials are working on a plan to purchase sovereign debt as they strive to prevent a deflationary spiral of falling prices and households postponing spending, a risk Draghi has said can't be “entirely excluded.” In addition to moribund growth, the region risks being further unsettled by elections in at least three countries this year and mounting concern about the future of the single currency.

“Hello, deflation,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London. “Even if we do not share the widespread concerns about dangerous deflationary dynamics,” the ECB is “miles away” from its goal of inflation near 2 percent, he said.