ECB’s Kazaks sees growing case for more tightening - The Star

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank (ECB) may need to gradually raise interest rates further to curb inflation before an Iran war-driven rise in fuel costs starts seeping through to wages and other prices, ECB policymaker Martins Kazaks says. The ECB raised its key rate last Thursday – to 2.5% from 2.25% – for the second time this year and warned that price pressures from the Iran conflict could prove lasting, fuelling bets on more policy tightening as soon as October. Kazaks, Latvia’s central bank governor, saw scope for more, incremental hikes as energy prices and broader inflation stay elevated. “The case is building up for more tightening,” he said in a phone interview. Kazaks added that 2.