The Governing Council of the European Central Bank is meeting in Frankfurt today where it’s widely expected to increase interest rates by another quarter of one percent.
This would bring the ECB’s base deposit rate to 3.5%.
Various members of the ECB’s Governing Council have made clear in recent weeks that interest rates will go up again after their meeting today and they’re likely to go up by a quarter of one percent.
This would be the eighth successive interest rate increase since the ECB began to respond to higher inflation in the euro area last July.
Attention will quickly turn to whether or not rates will go up again when it meets next month.
The Governor of the Central Bank, Gabriel Makhlouf, said last week another rate hike in July was ‘probable.’
Much will depend on new economic forecasts for the euro area which will also be published by the Bank today.
Inflation in the euro area is estimated to have fallen back to 6.1% in May, with underlying inflation, which excludes food and energy, also slowing. Inflation in Ireland was 6.6% last month.
Article Source – ECB expected to hike interest rates by another 0.25% – RTE