Lagarde bets rates held at record high will curb inflation

Tough call: Lagarde (right) and Irene Tinagli, chairwoman of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, at the meeting. The ECB president says the bank's record high deposit rate could help cut inflation to 2%, repeating its guidance that neither promises nor rules out further rate hikes. — AFP

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank’s (ECB) record-high deposit rate could help cut inflation to 2%, ECB president Christine Lagarde says, repeating the bank’s guidance that neither promises nor rules out further rate hikes.

Policymakers have provided different interpretations of this guidance over the past week, with one extreme arguing that the next move is likely to be a rate cut, while the other side said that the chance of another hike could be close to 50%.