ECB to stop hiking in July 'but only after three monthly increases in a row'

The recent financial-sector turmoil may help the ECB by tightening credit conditions, president Christine Lagarde said.

The European Central Bank is set to deliver three quarter-point increases in interest rates in May, June, and July before ending the most aggressive bout of monetary tightening in its history, economists polled by Bloomberg say.

That would take the deposit rate to 3.75%, where it would stay through the rest of the year, according to the survey.