European Central Bank hikes interest rates to combat inflation and leaves door open to more

By DAVID McHUGH
AP Business Writer

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank has raised interest rates for the ninth straight time in its yearlong campaign to stamp out painfully high inflation. ECB President Christine Lagarde had all but promised the quarter-percentage point increase and kept the door open Thursday to further hikes despite increasing fears of recession. She says at the next meeting in September, “we might hike or we might hold.” U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday was similarly noncommittal about whether more rate increases might be coming.