Hopes grow further ECB rate hike in September will be its last

There are 171,000 households holding tracker mortgages in the Republic who will be immediately be affected by the latest rate increase

The president of European Central Bank Christine Lagarde: Future meetings 'could be a hike, or could be pause'

The European Central Bank hiked its official rates by a further quarter point, completing the first 12 months of its inflation-fighting campaign, a move that will imminently affect 242,600 tracker and fixed-rate mortgaged households.  

However, the focus immediately turned to the next meeting after its summer break, amid hopes the ECB will call a halt to its campaign in September, but only after sanctioning a rate hike of a further quarter point.