The facts are straight: the ECB hikes interest rates by 50bp today, gave a quasi pre-commitment to hike again by 50bp in March and kept the door open for further rate hikes beyond the March meeting. A very clear message if the ECB had limited its communication to the 1:15pm CET press release but it didn’t. More and not less confusion We know that it is easy to criticize politicians and policymakers if you are just an observer and not in the driver’s seat but if anything today’s ECB press conference created more and not less confusion about the ECB’s reaction function and the path beyond the March meeting. With ... (full story)