On Wednesday, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, is expected to raise its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.25 percent, according to economists’ average forecasts. In such cases, it will be the tenth straight increase since March last year. After that, the Fed is deemed to lie still to await the interest rate effects on the economy and inflation.
The following day, Thursday, the European Central Bank will issue its interest rate announcement. The ECB is also expected to raise the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent. The day before, fresh inflation statistics come from the euro area. If the price rate turns out to be higher than expected, the economists do not rule out that there could be an even bigger interest rate increase.
The Norwegians are also expected to raise the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.25 percent.
On Wednesday, the Swedish Riksbank raised the interest rate by 0.50 percentage points to 3.50 percent, and signaled another smaller increase this summer.