In an effort to curb the growing inflation in the Eurozone, the European Central Bank (ECB) unexpectedly raised interest rates last Thursday by a whopping half a percentage point.

After eight years of negative interest rates, this extraordinary hike, the first since 2011, comes to curb the inflation that prevails in the eurozone. Thus, only the three main interest rates of the central bank are affected by this increase. These are the interest rate of the deposit facility, which leaves -0.5% for 0%, the refi rate from 0% to 0.5% and the lending rate that climbs from 0.15% to 0.75%. For Italy, which is the third largest economy in the euro zone, the "forced resignation" of Prime Minister Draghi, former president of the central bank, has created a political crisis. In the countries of the CFA zone, at a fixed parity with the euro, which already recorded a deficit of more than 1 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022 for the Uemoa zone alone, the consequences of this significant increase will weigh heavily on them.