FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank on Thursday kept its key deposit rate unchanged at 2.25 percent but opened the door to a rise in September as fresh fighting in the Middle East threatens to send prices higher.
“Yes, it was a unanimous decision,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said of Thursday’s decision to keep rates unchanged.
“But I’m going to qualify that because there were some governors who asked themselves whether we should not consider a hike,” she added.
Fresh fighting in the Middle East and rising oil prices had put the ECB on alert ahead of its rate-setting meeting.
Two weeks of renewed conflict between Iran and the United States have once again slowed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a trickle, restricting energy exports on a waterway that in peacetime carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas.
