Oliver Mangan: Is there light at the end of the rate hike tunnel?

The ECB will need to inflation forecasts revised lower so has left its options open about raising rates again

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, at a rates decision news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday. Markets are a bit less sure that eurozone rates have peaked. They are not expecting a rate hike at the next ECB meeting in September. Picture: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

Markets remain of the view in the aftermath of the last week’s Fed and ECB policy meetings — which saw them both raise interest rates by 25bps — that the rate hiking cycles in the US and eurozone have either drawn to a close or are very close to the end. 

US futures contracts see Fed rates rising by just a further 9bps over the remainder of the year, bringing them up to 5.42%. This is still within the new 5.25-5.50% range for the fed funds rate and implies no further increase in official rates.