Speculations about an impending interest rate hike in the euro zone drove the euro exchange rate on Thursday morning.

Up to $1.0922 was paid for one unit of the common currency.

The night before it was around $1,085.

Some high-ranking ECB officials had spoken out in favor of tightening interest rate policy after the European Central Bank (ECB) had recently shown hesitation and also decided against an increase in its most recent interest rate decision.

Among other things, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel had promised an initial interest rate hike in the summer due to the high inflation in Germany.

ECB Governing Council member Pierre Wunsch also said that he thinks a rate hike in July is possible.

The necessary monetary policy decisions are "of course dependent on the data," said Wunsch in an interview with the Bloomberg news agency published on Thursday.

A first rate hike since the beginning of the Corona crisis in July is “certainly a scenario that I would consider,” said the President of the Belgian central bank.

The prerequisite, however, is “another inflation surprise”.

Wunsch also believes it is possible for key interest rates to be raised into positive territory by the end of the year.

Here, too, Wunsch made monetary policy decisions dependent on the available data.

Council member Martins Kazaks, who heads the Latvian central bank, had already put an interest rate hike in July into play on Wednesday.

In a Bloomberg interview, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos also spoke out in favor of an initial interest rate hike in July.

"I see no reason why we shouldn't phase out our asset purchase program in July," de Guindos said.

From today's perspective, a rate hike in July is also possible.

However, the Vice President also believes that an interest rate hike will only be possible in September or later and made it clear that the decision would depend on the data situation.

In addition, according to the final figures, inflation in the euro zone rose to a record high of 7.4 percent on average in March, as the statistics office Eurostat announced on Thursday based on final data.

If the ECB were to take more rapid action against inflation, the economic outlook would not deteriorate significantly, says Commerzbank analyst Antje Praefcke.

"If Europe is spared an energy crisis, it is likely that the ECB will raise interest rates in the fall, as our experts expect."

The central banks are faced with a balancing act: if they raise interest rates too quickly or significantly, the economy and job market could be stalled.

On the horizon is the scenario of an impending stagflation, i.e. the combination of rising prices and economic stagnation.

Nagel also called for prudence at the IMF spring meeting in Washington.

"An emergency monetary policy braking would not make sense," he says.

One should not turn the interest rate screw too hastily.