Description
Added on the 31/07/2015 16:47:48 - Copyright : Reuters EN
The European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde says that the ECB is raising interest rates again and signals it would "stay the course" in its monetary policy tightening, even as sky-high inflation starts to slow. SOUNDBITE
European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde, announces the ECB is lifting its key rates of interest by 75 basis points, leaving them sitting in a range of between 0.75 and 1.5 percent. It came after the bank hiked rates by 50 basis points in July, its first increase in more than a decade, in order to tame record eurozone inflation. These levels "will ensure the timely return of inflation to our 2% medium term target" she says, during a press conference in Frankfurt. SOUNDBITE
Soaring inflation in the eurozone meant the European Central Bank would soon have to bring an end to its long-standing policy of negative interest rates, the head of the German central bank says. SOUNDBITE of Bundesbank chief Joachim Nagel
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen says Brussels will propose to freeze the assets of the Russian central bank, in a major escalation of sanctions against Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine. Speaking after a videoconference with the leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Italy and Canada, she says the Western allies "will paralyse the assets of Russia's central bank." SOUNDBITE
The US Federal Reserve votes to hold interest rates at a 22-year high for the third straight meeting and signaled it expects to make three cuts next year. SOUNDBITE
The Bank of England announces it will hold its key interest rate at 5.25 percent, a day after the Federal Reserve also froze borrowing costs as global inflation retreats. The BoE had already kept its rate steady at the central bank's previous monetary policy meeting in September, snapping a streak of 14 hikes in a row. But Governor Andrew Bailey says it is "much too early" to think about cutting rates. IMAGES