Rising inflation figures in France and Spain, among others, are causing interest rates on government bonds to rise. For example, the Dutch ten-year interest rate has risen above three percent for the first time in more than eleven years. Analysts take into account that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates to almost four percent, the highest level ever.
Today it was announced that inflation in France and Spain rose by 7.2 and 6.1 percent respectively, while a decline was expected. Although inflation fell in Belgium, core inflation, excluding energy and food, rose.
Tomorrow Germany will publish new inflation figures, on Thursday the figures for the Netherlands and the eurozone will be announced. According to BNR’s house economist Han de Jong, it may just be that the Netherlands will follow the example of France, Spain and Belgium.
more aggressive
Now that inflation is rising again, the ECB is expected to pursue a more aggressive interest rate policy. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will announce a new interest rate decision on March 16. The ECB is expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points to 3%. At the beginning of this year, the financial markets still assumed that the key interest rate would not exceed 3.5 percent, but there is now talk of four percent, the FD writes.
