The European Central Bank has announced its decision to raise interest rates by 50 points, as expected.
The increase is in addition to the previous one, which took place in December and places the interest rate for refinancing operations at 3%, while the deposit rate will reach 2.50% and the loan facility rate will reach 3%. 25%
Likewise, according to Europa Press, it has advanced that, in view of the pressures on underlying inflation, "it plans to increase interest rates another 50 basis points at its next monetary policy meeting in March", then raising the reference rate to 3.50%, and will later evaluate the future path of its monetary policy.
With this fifth consecutive rise in the price of money, which reached its highest level at the end of 2008, the ECB shows no signs of relaxing its monetary policy normalization, after raising another 50 basis points in December and the two increases of 75 basis points undertaken at the October and September meetings, after an initial rise of half a percentage point in July 2022.
The ECB's decision comes one day after learning that the year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area moderated in January for the third consecutive month, relaxing to 8.5%, seven tenths below the 9.2% in December and at its level lowest since May 2022, before the central bank started raising rates.
Likewise, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) decided yesterday to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, until placing them in a target range between 4.50% and 4.75%.
In the subsequent press conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that it will be necessary to continue raising rates to contain inflation, although he limited the US central bank's road map to "a couple of more hikes."
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christine lagarde