Lagarde boosts ECB rate hike expectations | Photo credits: Bernd Hartung / European Central Bank / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
LJUBLJANA, May 11 (Reuters) – Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), announced on Wednesday that the institution could end its asset purchase program (APP) at the start of the third quarter and raise rates “a few weeks” later.
“My expectation is that they [les achats d’obligations sur les marchés, ndlr] should be completed at the beginning of the third quarter,” Christine Lagarde told a conference in Slovenia.
“The first rate hike (..) will take place some time after the end of the net asset purchases (..), which may mean a period of only a few weeks,” she added. (Report Balazs Koranyi; written by Francesco Canepa; French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Kate Entringer)