http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-england-holds-fire-focus-on-ecb-2011-04-07?dist=beforebell
<b>April 7, 2011, 7:48 a.m. EDT
European Central Bank delivers rate hike
Widely-expected inflation-fighting move comes amid ongoing debt woes
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LONDON (MarketWatch) â The European Central Bank, in a widely-anticipated move, delivered its first rate hike since 2008 on Thursday in a bid to prevent rising inflation pressures from becoming entrenched.
The Frankfurt-based ECB, which sets monetary policy for the 17-nation euro zone, raised its refi rate to 1.25% from 1%. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichetâs monthly news conference is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
Portugal seeks a bailout
Portugal becomes the third nation to seek a financial bailout from the European Union.
The move also comes as European officials wrestle with an ongoing debt crisis that claimed its third victim Wednesday night, with Portugal following Greece and Ireland in requesting an emergency bailout after its borrowing costs soared to unsustainable levels. Read Markets take Portugal bailout in stride, eye Spain
Traders had anticipated a hike since Trichet last month said the rate-setting Governing Council would watch inflation developments with âstrong vigilance,â a term used previously to signal rate hikes.
Subsequent remarks by Trichet and other ECB officials underlined market expectations for a move.
Some economists say a rate hike may exacerbate the regionâs long-running sovereign-debt problems. While the euro-zone economy is growing amid an industrial boom in Germany and other core countries, nations on the periphery are struggling with austerity measures designed to bring down huge budget deficits.
Market interest rates have already moved higher in anticipation of a rate move, with this feeding through to borrowing costs, especially for those with Euribor-linked mortgages, said Simon Smith, economist at FxPro, in a note to clients.
Such rates are prevalent in the euro-zone periphery, where variable mortgages range from 85% of borrowing in Spain and Ireland to 99% of borrowing in Portugal, he said.
âThe issue for the ECB is that itâs tasked with setting policy for the euro zone as a whole, but the result of todayâs anticipated rate increase will be to worsen, rather than improve, the current fiscal and also economic crisis,â Smith said.