Tag Archives: Interest rates

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank with former Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, Philip Lane, now chief economist at the ECB, at the Euro at 20 Conferences Convention Centre Dublin last year

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ Business:

“Since bottlenecks will eventually be resolved, price pressures should abate and inflation return to its trend without a need for a significant adjustment in monetary policy,” Lane said in a blog post.

He was echoed at a separate event by French governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau.

They were likely trying to dampen market expectations, which are for an early end of the ECB’s bond purchases and rate hikes worth 50 basis points by December.

These were stoked by ECB President Christine Lagarde last week, when she refused to rule out a rate increase this year. Sources told Reuters some policymakers already wanted policy changes at last week’s meeting.

But Philip Lane defended the ECB’s “hold-steady” approach.

The logic underpinning a hold-steady approach to monetary policy is reinforced if the bottlenecks are primarily external in nature, caused by global disruptions in supply or a surge in global demand,” he said.

Euro zone inflation doesn’t require significant policy tightening – Lane (RTE)

RollingNews

Ronan Emmet writes:

Not only did the Irish citizen pay more per head then any other euro citizen or country to fix the European Banking Crisis, we also have the luxury of paying the highest mortgage interest rates of any EURO country.

Is there anything that the Irish Government and bankers touch that doesn’t have a whiff of a scam to it?

Irish people are being ripped off and it will continue until Irish people learn to stand up for themselves against those in power. Time to drain the swamp in Dail Eireann.

Source: Central Bank of Ireland

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European Central Bank president Mario Draghi

The Telegraph reports:

As the euro area suffers from low inflation, the currency bloc’s central bank has elected to make cuts to interest rates. The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut its headline rate to 0.05pc, while taking it deposit rate to -0.2pc. Annual eurozone inflation stood at just 0.3pc in August, well below the ECB’s target of just below 2pc. The majority of economists polled by Bloomberg – 51 out of 57 – expected the ECB’s governing council to maintain its key rate at 0.15pc and its deposit rate at -0.1pc.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi will hold a press conference at 1.30pm.

Lizards be lizarding.

European Central Bank slashes interest rates as eurozone suffers ‘lowflation’ crisis (The Telegraph)

Pic: Telegraph

Postoffice

Economics Editor of RTÉ David Murphy has written a blog post explaining how the Government is shaping banks’s interests rates and those of An Post, via the National Treasury Management Agency, to effectively reduce people’s ability to save.

In his post, he writes:

“In 2001, former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy introduced SSIA savings accounts in which the Government contributed €1 for every €1 from depositors. In those days the State wanted people to save more – but now as there is less disposable income it wants them to save less.”

“Keeping money on deposit has become much less rewarding as interest rates have been steadily lowered by the banks.”

“Unless an individual is prepared to put money away for ten years, a lump sum of €10,000 won’t get a return higher than 2.5% per annum.”

“The Government is jacking up the tax on interest from savings to 45% from next January. As a result many people will consider tax free savings in post offices.”

“The interest rates offered by at An Post are controlled by the National Treasury Management Agency – which is likely to cut the rates if it sees an avalanche of savers moving money from banks to post offices. It has cut the rates twice in the past year much to the relief of the banks.”

“Financial institutions use deposits to lend to consumers and businesses. For example if a bank pays a saver 2% and lends at 5%, the difference between the two figures is the bank’s profit.”

“Reducing the amount paid to depositors has been part of the banks’ strategy to return to profit.”

“The Department of Finance is also happy to see returns to depositors eroded.”

“It would appear that the officials in Merrion Street believe engineering an environment of low interest rates and high taxes will prompt consumers to release some of their savings – and if they spend more it will add to economic growth.”

Sigh.

Read the full blog post here.