23/05/2022 (Agence Europe) – The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, considered it “ likely”, on Monday 23 May, that the negative territory of the deposit facility rate, currently set at -0.50%, will be removed “by the end of the third quarter” of 2022, in her blog published on the European Union institution’s website (see EUROPE 12951/24). In order to respond to the surge in inflation exacerbated by soaring energy prices, a first rate hike will be decided at the ECB Governing Council meeting on 21 July in Frankfurt, only a few weeks after the end of the ‘APP’ operation of financial securities repurchases expected at the very beginning of the third quarter. See the blog: https://aeur.eu/f/1rn (MB)