Editorial: ECB will have to move quickly to increase interest rates

It’s growing increasingly likely the ECB will be forced to lift rates by the end of this year in a bid to rein in surging inflation. It may need to move quicker than that

European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt: we can already see from the past week that markets are well ahead of the ECB and have begun pricing in higher interest rates in Europe this year.

For those who like to keep a close eye on the world of monetary policy, the past week has been an eventful one. The Bank of England increased its main interest rate for the second time in a matter of months, after the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, confirmed it will begin to lift rates from March.

In Europe, meanwhile, Christine Lagarde and the European Central Bank (ECB) continue to play an intricate game ...