Warning for Irish mortgages and firms over 'higher for longer' ECB interest rate hikes

Financial markets extended their bets and predicted the ECB would only stop hiking its official rates at a peak of 4% early next year

Fears the European Central Bank will be forced to hike interest rates higher for longer will hit Irish firms and mortgaged households, experts have warned.

It comes as markets bet that the ECB will only stop hiking rates next February, much later than once thought, after the publication on Tuesday of stronger-than-expected inflation readings in France and Spain.