By DAVID McHUGH | AP Business Writer
FRANKFURT, Germany — The European Central Bank chugged ahead with another outsized interest rate hike Thursday and vowed more ahead, underlining its drive to subdue inflation even as the European economy slows and the U.S. Federal Reserve eases its pace of increases.
The Frankfurt-based bank raised its key benchmarks by half a percentage point and said it intends to make a similar move in March. Policymakers are moving aggressively to get on top of price spikes that have slowed from record highs but are still hurting households in the 20 countries that use the euro currency.
The bank, which also hiked by a half-point in December, “will stay the course in raising interest rates significantly at a steady pace,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said at a news conference. The bank will keep borrowing costs at levels “sufficiently restrictive” to get back to its 2% target deemed best for the economy.
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The Bank of England also went big with a half-point hike Thursday, but the Fed pulled back a day earlier, slowing to a quarter-point hike.
Central bank action can hold back economic growth if they go too far. With the ECB moving quickly, Lagarde acknowledged that “economic activity has slowed markedly” since the middle of last year and it’s expected to stay weak as demand slows around the world and Russia’s war in Ukraine raises uncertainty.
But she was optimistic overall, pointing to supply chain backups easing up and Europe’s natural gas supply becoming more secure after Russia cut off most supplies to the continent.
“The economy has proved more resilient than expected and should recover over the coming quarters,” she said.
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The ECB’s bigger moves compared to the Fed partly reflect a later start in raising rates in July, four months after the U.S. central bank made its first increase, and from lower levels. That means more ground to make up.
Raising rates makes it more expensive for consumers to borrow for purchases like homes and cars and for companies to fund expansions. That is designed to cool demand for goods that push up consumer prices, which increased 8.5% in the eurozone last month from a year earlier.
While still high, the annual rate has dropped three months in a row after reaching a record high of 10.6% in October.
Inflation is one of the key factors holding back economic growth, robbing consumers of spending power as higher food and energy prices consume their paychecks.
High energy prices tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine have driven up utility bills for households and businesses, which have passed on those extra costs to shoppers and diners. That’s been the major driver of European inflation, which is well above the ECB’s target of 2% considered best for the economy.
Workers across continental Europe and in the United Kingdom have been holding strikes and protests to demand that their pay keep pace with the soaring cost of living.
While interest rate hikes are the usual cure for inflation, they also mean people are facing sharply higher mortgage rates to buy homes and banks that are becoming more restrictive with loans.
And central bank action can hold back economic growth if they go too far. The eurozone’s economy already has stagnated — it grew only 0.1% in the last three months of 2022.
ECB officials say decisive action now will prevent inflation from becoming ingrained in wages, prices and people’s expectations and force more drastic action later. Bank officials say economic growth should recover more strongly later in the year, expecting a 0.5% increase in output – still less than 3.5% in 2022.
The ECB’s benchmark for lending now stands at 3%, and the rate on deposits left overnight by commercial banks is 2.5%. The key U.S. federal funds rate after Wednesday’s meeting is at 4.5% to 4.75%.
Source: Orange County Register
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