The euro continued its decline Friday, falling below $1.01 for the first time since late 2002.

By 08:35 GMT (10:35 a.m. CET), the euro was down 0.49 percent to $1.0110, after falling as low as $1.0072 earlier.

The euro's high-speed decline to near parity is largely due to rising natural gas prices. This is causing investors to fear a stockout as they abandon the single currency. And fearing the risks this would pose to the economy, the ECB is reluctant at this time to raise rates too quickly, despite inflation.

In addition, "the divergence of borrowing rates in the Eurozone", further justifies the Bank's decision to be cautious. According to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at SwissQuote, the current state of affairs will get worse and worse "as long as the ECB does not mention a shock measure, such as a 0.50 percentage point increase" at its next meeting. Guillaume Dejean, an analyst at Western Union, shares this opinion, for whom "the fight against inflation prevails over everything else".