The ECB raises interest rates by half a percentage point, to 2.5%, its highest level since 2008

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The European Central Bank has raised interest rates again this Thursday, another 50 basis points, placing them at 2.5%, its highest level since December 2008.

With this fourth consecutive rise the price of money, the ECB has moderated the intensity of the normalization of its monetary policy, after the two increases of 75 basic points undertaken in the meetings of October and September, after an initial rise of half a percentage point in July.

In particular, the Governing Council estimates that interest rates “will have to be further increased significantly at a sustained pace”, until they reach sufficiently restrictive levels to ensure that they return to the 2% medium-term objective in a timely manner.

The ECB’s decision comes days after learning that the year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area stood at 10% in November, six tenths below the historical record registered in October and its first slowdown in 17 months.

The ECB’s less aggressiveness joins the line of other large central banks, such as the United States Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, which announced less intense rate hikes at their respective December monetary policy meetings.

This is the case of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) which yesterday chose to lift its foot off the accelerator and agreed to a 50 basis point rate hike, the seventh since March, to place them in the range between 4 .25% and 4.5%, its highest level in 15 years in the US since December 2007.

For its part, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has decided to raise the reference interest rate for its operations by 50 basis points, which will now stand at 3.50%, its highest level since autumn 2008. .