Interest rate hike looms in just 11 months

No change in monetary policy is predicted from the ECB next Thursday, but lift-off on the first interest-rate hike for years is predicted in just 11 months’ time, for September next year.

It will end its negative interest-rate policy in January, 2020, and start paying for deposits eight months after that, with the deposit rate climbing to 0.25%, from minus 0.4% currently, by the end of 2020, according to the Bloomberg survey of economists. The survey will again raise concerns in Ireland, where households carry some of the largest debt burdens in Europe.