Interest rate cut imminent for Irish mortgage holders — but it’s not all good news

Having held its base rate at minus 0.5 per cent for nearly three years, the European Central Bank started its most recent set of rises in July 2022. Since September last year, the base rate has been at 4 per cent. That represents a rise of 450 basis points, the largest cyclical increase in the ECB’s history.

A surge in inflation, triggered by pandemic economic supports, caused the bank to raise rates aggressively. In February 2023, inflation measured using the harmonised index of consumer prices peaked at 8.9 per cent for the eurozone. In previous economic cycles, the highest eurozone inflation was just 3.5 per cent.

Now it looks as though the ECB will reduce its base rate, starting at its next meeting, on D-Day,