the european central bank got an unwelcome surprise a day before its interestrate decision after the eurostat statistics agency reported the hottest inflation on record eurostat said consumer prices jumped 51 from a year earlier in january a notch ahead of the 5 rise for december and well ahead of the 44 expected by economists core inflation did cool to 23 from 26 vitor constancio the former vice president of the ecb tweeted the data shouldn’t change the central bank’s approach and expectations but the euro eurusd did edge higher after the move and the yield on the 10year german bund tmbmkde10y touched the highest level since april 2019 “ecb president christine lagarde will probably discard the perspective of a rate hike in 2022 but will not push back that perspective for 2023 in a nutshell no rush for the ecb  time should be on its side from a macroeconomic standpoint the end game is probably more certain than the short term path” said vincent manuel global chief investment officer of induez wealth management there’s less uncertainty heading into thursday’s bank of england meeting where expectations are for a quarterpoint rate hike to 05 the question for markets revolves around the commentary for hikes after that gavin friend senior market strategist at national australia bank expects the third hike to come in august and for rates to remain at 075 through the end of the year which is less than the market pricing of 125 the pound gbpusd rose to 13563 from 13522