The European Central Bank on Thursday increased the key interest rate in the Eurozone by 0.25 percentage points to 4.25%. The decision to hike rates for a ninth straight time is part of the ongoing campaign to bring down inflation, but as inflation pressures show tentative signs of easing, recession worries mount.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during an EU summit last Friday in Brussels that Europe's banking system is stable and solid. The leaders of the Eurozone countries met with the head of the European Central Bank, ECB, Christine Lagarde, to discuss the potential fallsou of several major banks collapsing in the US and Switzerland.
Leading central banks of the West announced on Sunday a coordinated action to provide liquidity to the financial system through the US swap liquidity line arrangements. The statement was signed by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen and Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell and becomes effective Monday 20 March.
The European Central Bank increased its basic interest rate 50 basis point to 2,5% and anticipated it intended to hike by another 50 basis points in March. The move follows four hikes in 2022 which brought euro zone rates out of negative territory for the first time since 2014.
The European Central Bank is facing strong demands to finish meetings behind closed doors with the private sector, following on disclosure that chief economist Philip Lane allegedly anticipated an inflation forecast, not yet published, in one of such events.
The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday kept interest rates at historic lows and said it was stepping up its bond-buying stimulus in the coming months. The steps are aimed at halting what is regarded as a premature rise in borrowing costs in the 19 countries that use the Euro currency.
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), said on Monday that the journey to recovery in 2021 would most likely be accompanied by a very high level of uncertainty before a transition to a new economy.
France and Germany proposed on Monday a 500-billion-euro (US$545-billion) fund to finance the recovery of the European Union's economy from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus crisis.
The world's largest oil traders are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into climate-friendly projects: including wind farms, cow manure plants, and blue hydrogen: as they seek to match the profits they make from trading oil.
Incoming European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde on Wednesday took aim at Germany and other thrifty Eurozone members running budgetary surpluses, saying they should increase their spending to shore up slowing growth.