Faced with the rise in interest rates on euro-area countries’ sovereign debt, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) unexpectedly gathered on Wednesday, 15 June—less than a week after it announced the methodology it would use to gradually increase the three key interest rates starting in 21 July (see EUROPE B12968A1).
It notably asked its services to “accelerate the completion of the design of a new anti-fragmentation instrument” in the euro area, according...