ECB Director Isabel Schnabel expects interest rate hike in July

Good news for savers: after the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.5 percent on Tuesday, the European Central Bank could follow with a rate hike in July.

The director of the European Central Bank (ECB), Isabel Schnabel, according to her own statements, expects a key interest rate increase by the European Central Bank in July. “As things stand today, I assume that we will be able to raise interest rates for the first time in July,” Schnabel told the Bild newspaper.

She had told the “Handelsblatt” in the middle of the week that an increase was then possible. The ECB has recently sent mixed signals about the further course of events. On Thursday, the head of the Austrian National Bank, Robert Holzmann, spoke of a first interest rate move in June (t-online reported).

However, other ECB representatives had indirectly spoken out against July or said that the process was more important than the actual time. In view of the comparatively high inflation in the euro area (7.4 percent), the ECB is under pressure to follow the USA and Great Britain with a rate increase. The US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.5 percent on Tuesday.