Lagarde Signals End of ECB’s Negative Interest Rate Experiment – The Wall Street Journal

FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank is expected to raise its key rate, currently negative, to zero by September and may continue to raise rates thereafter, the president said. Christine Lagarde said, signaling the end of the ECB’s eight-year experiment with negative rates amid record inflation and concerns over a weak euro.

The policy shift, described in an ECB blog post on Monday, follows strong actions by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks to phase out easy money policies as inflation heats up in the whole world. It’s part of a sharp pivot from the eurozone central bank, which had until recently signaled that it would only raise interest rates gradually, moving away from the Fed.