ECB To Meet Next Week As Speculation Mounts About Another Interest Rate Increase

The European Central Bank will meet next week – as speculation mounts that it will announce another interest rate increase.

There is still uncertainty surrounding the rate of the increase.

The ECB has upped rates by 3.5 percentage points since last July in an effort to rein in inflation.

Economist Austin Hughes said there will be an increase but its too close to call whether it will be a half or quarter of percentage point:

“There’s still a little bit of uncertainty about whether it’s a quarter point or a half point. I think, we saw slightly better than expected German inflation numbers. The Irish inflation numbers last week were also a little bit better than expected. I think the balance is probably for a quarter point. But it is a very close call between a quarter and a half percent rise”.