The European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates in the eurozone by 50 basis points in both February and March and will continue to do so in the coming months, Claes Noth, a member of the ECB’s Governing Council, said in an interview. to Dutch broadcaster WNL on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Headquarters of the ECBPhoto: Martti Kainulainen / Editorial Shutterstock / Profimedia
  • “We expect interest rate hikes of 0.5% in February and March, and we expect more hikes in May and June,” Noth said.

In another interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa on Sunday, Noth explained that it is “too early to say” whether the European Central Bank will be able to slow the rate of interest rate hikes before the summer.

  • “At some point, of course, the risks to inflation forecasts will become more balanced.
  • In addition, there will be a period when, for example, we could lower interest rates to 50 basis points, but we are still far from such an evolution,” the ECB representative said, according to Agerpres.

The European Central Bank has raised its key interest rate by 250 basis points in its last four policy meetings, an unprecedented increase in the cost of credit in such a short period, and plans to maintain the same direction in the coming months to challenge persistently lower inflation.

The latest statistics show that annual inflation in the eurozone slowed to 9.2% in December, mainly due to lower energy costs. However, core inflation, which strips out volatility in food and energy prices, continued to rise to 5.2%, dampening hopes that the recent price surge has passed.

In July 2022, the Governing Council of the ECB raised interest rates for the first time in 11 years. The September increase was the most significant in the history of the ECB.