After an initial slow start withdrawing easy money last year, the central bank began raising interest rates in July. Since then, it has undertaken the fastest pace of monetary tightening in the bank’s two-decade history. Christine Lagarde, the bank’s president, stressed in a news conference Thursday that the E.C.B. remained resolved to raise interest rates to the point where they would restrain economic activity and “once we are there, stay sufficiently” so interest rates return inflation to 2 percent in the medium term.The challenge policymakers around the world face this year is determining when to halt rate increases. There are signs that inflation has peaked in the United States, Britain and many eurozone …
