Weakening Retail Sales and a Surprising Hawkish ECB Announcement
12/15/2022
This morning as expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) followed the Fed’s lead with a 50 bp rate hike, and raised eyebrows with a much higher inflation outlook and significantly hawkish forward guidance. Like the U.S. Central Bank, the ECB clearly believes it has more work to do. In a sense, this aggressive stance helps the Fed by clamping down on global demand, which should put additional downward pressure on overall prices.