Emer Walsh: Window dressing bank offerings of 3% an attempt to save face

After being forced to the table by the Government, Ireland's pillar banks have prompted questions once again as to who it is they serve 

As part of its anti-inflation campaign, the ECB increased its deposit rate from -0.5% to 0%. Eight more hikes later, that rate currently stands at 3.75%. Picture: Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty

In July last year, the European Central Bank (ECB) ended its more than 11-year-long era of negative interest rates, raising them in the first round of an aggressive campaign to curb skyrocketing prices.

At the time, the ECB justified the move by citing its “updated assessment of inflation risks,” arising from supply bottlenecks and the war in Ukraine, recognising that high inflation “is a major challenge for all of us.”