According to its President Christine Lagarde, the European Central Bank (ECB) intends to continue raising interest rates to combat high inflation. Price pressure is still strong and core inflation, which excludes particularly volatile prices, is still high, Lagarde said in the European Parliament. “Given underlying inflationary pressures, we plan to hike rates by a further 50 basis points at our next meeting in March, and we will then assess our monetary policy stance,” she said. The next interest rate meeting of the monetary authorities is scheduled for March 16th. Since the turnaround in interest rates last July, the ECB has raised key interest rates five times in a row. How it will happen after the March meeting is still unclear. Inflation in the euro zone fell in January for the third month in a row, to 8.5 percent. Nonetheless, the monetary authorities’ medium-term inflation target of two percent is still a long way off.
Interest rates – Lagarde confirms its course – Economy
