ECB’s Zigman Says December Rate Hike ‘Quite Likely’

The significance here is less the hike itself than the framing: policy tightening is now being justified by an energy-driven inflation shock tied to the Iran conflict, which central banks cannot address with rate rises without squeezing the rest of the economy. Zigman's alignment with other policymakers suggests the December move is becoming a consensus rather than a debate, which matters for euro-area borrowers and for crypto and RWA markets that have traded as a rate-sensitive risk asset. The open question is whether October's price data marks a peak or a trend, and whether the Governing Council's final meeting of 2026 delivers the 25 basis points now being signalled.