In a blog post, ECB President Christine Lagarde said that last week 50bps rate hike, the first rate increase in 11 years, was “only the latest step in our journey to unwind the special measures we had to take to fight a series of crises”, following the end of the net asset purchase programs.
“With these actions, we are sending a clear message to companies, workers and investors: inflation will return to our 2% target over the medium term,” she added. “We will keep raising rates for as long as necessary to bring inflation down to our target over the medium term.”
While Europe is facing great uncertainty, “not least over the war and energy prices… the Governing Council will review the situation and decide on the right pace for our next steps depending on the incoming data.”