March 9 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's central bank expects the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise its key interest rates further in the upcoming rate-setting meeting on March 16 and continue tightening monetary policy in the coming months, governor Bostjan Vasle said.
"My expectations are that the March increase will be followed by additional increases until reaching a level that will be sufficient to get back on track to achieving our goal of 2% inflation," Vasle said in a statement by the central bank on Wednesday.
At its February meeting, the ECB governing council decided to raise the three key interest rates by 50 basis points. Accordingly, the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility were increased to 3.0%, 3.25%, and 2.5% respectively.
Annual inflation in the euro area edged down to 8.5% in February from 8.6% in January. In Slovenia, consumer prices grew by 9.3% year-on-year in February, after rising by 10.0% in January.