Banks set to move rapidly to pass on ECB rate hike

Yesterday’s rate increase triggers another increase of €120 a month for a household paying a tracker loan

Markets are betting that the ECB will only have stopped raising rates by early next summer, but by then Irish households will likely be paying €450 more a month on a €300,000 mortgage.

Irish banks will in a short order pass on the latest interest rate hike from the European Central Bank to all mortgage customers, further squeezing households during the cost-of-living crisis, experts say.

The European Central Bank yesterday delivered a jumbo hike of three-quarters of a point, in official rates, which means it has hiked key rates by a total of 2% since it first took up the fight in the summer against the worst inflation crisis since the 1970s.