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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Larry Elliott

Interest rates: the three central banks facing one tricky balancing act

The ECB president, Christine Lagarde
The ECB president, Christine Lagarde, has sought to reassure Italy that it would be shielded from any rise in interest rates. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Whatever it takes. With those three words the then head of the European Central Bank quashed doubts in July 2012 about whether the euro had a future. Mario Draghi’s message to the financial markets was that they should not doubt his commitment to defend the single currency. The warning worked.

Ten years later, the ECB is again in the spotlight, but so are two other major central banks – the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. All three are facing the same problem: what to do about annual inflation rates that are nudging 10%.

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