European Central Bank joins Fed in easing pace of rate hikes

By DAVID McHUGH
AP Business Writer

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank has slowed its record pace of interest rate increases. But not by much. The bank decided Thursday meeting to hike rate by half a percentage point instead of three-quarters of a point after inflation fell unexpectedly in November. That’s still a big hike and underlines that the bank is focused on cracking down on inflation, which is at a still-painful 10%. That would follow the moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and Bank of England also Thursday. ECB President Christine Lagarde is expected to make clear that now is not the time to back off on combating inflation.