Inflation has been coming down but is projected to remain too high for too long. The Governing Council is determined to ensure that inflation returns to its 2% medium-term target in a timely manner. It therefore today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. The rate increase today reflects the Governing Council’s updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission. According to the June macroeconomic projections, Eurosystem staff expect headline inflation to average 5.4% in 2023, 3.0% in 2024 and 2.2% in ... (full story)

The European Central Bank on Thursday announced a new rate increase of 25 basis points, taking its main rate to 3.5%. The central bank has raised rates since July 2022 in an attempt to bring down record-high inflation across the region. The latest inflation reading showed prices cooling down at a faster-than-expected pace, with headline inflation coming in at 6.1% in May and core inflation, which excludes volatile items, coming in at 5.3%. This remains well above the ECB’s target of 2% headline inflation, however. An additional challenge for the ECB is the lackluster growth in the region. Data released earlier this ... (full story)