European Central Bank

Alpha Bank raised 400 million euros on Wednesday through the issue of an Additional Tier 1 bond with a coupon of 11.875%, a rate lower than initial market estimates.

The European Central Bank is set to raise interest rates again on Thursday and pencil in more hikes for the next few months, with the only open question being how big these will be.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Christine Lagarde has said that interest rates need to continue rising at a "steady pace" in order to avoid inflation becoming entrenched.

While energy prices have recently come down, Lagarde said underlying inflation continues to rise.

Greek banks will undergo capital stress tests in order to get the green light from the European Central Bank's supervisory mechanism to distribute dividends to shareholders, the head of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) board, Andrea Enria, told Kathimerini.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras met on Thursday with Andrea Enria, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

Enria met with Stournaras and other members of the Bank of Greece's administration, as well as with representatives of the managements of Greek banks and the Hellenic Bank Association.

The de-escalation of eurozone inflation, which fell to 9.2% in December, is not expected to convince the European Central Bank to ease its aggressiveness in interest rate hikes, at least for now, analysts note to Kathimerini, a mistake in policy and also its predictions - which have often proven wrong - not ruled out, as it risks acting excessively in its struggle to tame high prices.

Washington – Global economy is in trouble, but given the circumstances Slovenia is in a relatively good financial and economic shape, Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič and Banka Slovenije Governor Boštjan Vasle said at the end of the a meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, US. The talks focussed on inflation.

The United States and the European Union can avoid recession and achieve a soft landing by bringing inflation down to an acceptable level, a U.S. central bank official said on Aug. 2.

"A soft landing is feasible in the U.S. and the EA [euro area]," St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard during a speech at New York university.

The new tool being promoted to shield southern European countries as interest rates may rise "not need to be used if it is strong enough to persuade investors not to try it".

This is what the governor of the Bank of Greece and member of the Board of Directors of the European Central Bank, Giannis Stournaras, said in a televised interview with Bloomberg.

Finding the right monetary policy response to tackle soaring inflation is an "art," European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said.

"It is not a science," Lagarde said on June 29 at a panel at the ECB's annual central banking conference in Portugal.
"What we are doing there is an element of art," she said.