France’s debt woes in focus as ECB meets - Free Malaysia Today

The ECB is set to keep interest rates on hold, having already hiked them twice this year, walking a fine line between tamping down inflation fuelled by the Iran war energy shock and supporting the eurozone economy. But the focus of Thursday’s meeting is likely to shift quickly to France and “how the ECB will respond to the ongoing fiscal and political crisis,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Economics. French bond yields, which reflect the cost of government borrowing, surged to their highest level since 2002 last week amid a standoff over next year’s budget, which aims to reduce the country’s vast debts.