Bets pile up for ECB half-point rate hike next month, raising pressure on Irish households

It comes after stronger-than-expected US jobs figures last week fuelled expectations of another rate hike in there in September

The European Central Bank's fight to control energy and food prices last month by hiking interest rates 50 basis points, or half a percentage point, will this summer automatically add to the cost of servicing home loans by 300,000 holders of tracker mortgages in Ireland.  

Markets have started to signal that the European Central Bank will hike interest rates by a further half a point when it next meets in September.

At its last meeting in July before its summer break, the central bank announced the first rate hike for 13 years, as it attempted to stop soaring inflation pressures from becoming embedded across the eurozone economy.