ECB’s Schnabel: Recent energy-price developments have been quite concerning

European Central Bank executive Isabel Schnabel has expressed concern over recent energy price developments, as the bank weighs the possibility of further interest rate hikes following last week's decision, according to Bloomberg. Schnabel highlighted that the issue extends beyond oil, with diesel prices also being affected. The Euro has remained under pressure against the US Dollar, with EUR/USD trading near 1.1540.

ECB, based in Frankfurt, Germany, is responsible for setting interest rates and managing monetary policy for the Eurozone, with the primary goal of maintaining price stability and keeping inflation around 2%. The bank's interest rate tool is used to strengthen or weaken the Euro accordingly. The ECB Governing Council meets eight times a year to make monetary policy decisions.

In extreme cases, the ECB can employ quantitative easing (QE), where the bank prints Euros and buys assets to provide liquidity to financial institutions. However, when inflation starts rising in a recovering economy, the ECB can reverse the process through quantitative tightening (QT), which involves selling bonds and not reinvesting maturing principal.

The EUR/USD, USD/JPY, and PI (Pi Network) pairs are among the major currency pairs being monitored, with various market factors influencing their movements.