FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank raised interest rates again on Thursday and signaled it was keen to start shrinking its bloated balance sheet, taking another big step in tightening policy to fight off a historic surge in inflation.
Worried that rapid price growth is becoming entrenched, the ECB is raising borrowing costs at the fastest pace on record, with further hikes almost certain as unwinding a decade’s worth of stimulus will take it well into next year and beyond.
In a series of complex moves, the central bank for the 19 countries that use the euro raised its deposit rate by 75 basis points to 1.5 percent, as expected, taking the total increase to 2 percentage points over three meetings. Until July, ECB rates had been in negative territory for eight years….