The ECB announced today the eighth consecutive increase in the reference interest rate, raising it, for now, by another 25 basis points, that is, from 3.75% to 4%, in a movement that, without measuring the consequences, will be repeated in July as announced.
This ECB option, taken in the name of combating inflation, is destroying the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of families in our country who have been pushed into buying their own homes, contracting home loans that, since July 2022, have already been increased in amounts of 100€, 200€, 300€, 400€ and more euros. An option that also has an impact on micro, small and medium-sized companies and which will not fail to be reflected in the interest paid on the public debt.
Faced with this escalation in interest rates, which has provided colossal profits to the main national banks – which increase the instalments of bank loans and lower the payment of deposits –, the Portuguese government assumes an attitude of complete subservience both to the impositions of the ECB and to the interests of banks.
For the PCP, combating the impacts of inflation requires not measures that further worsen the living conditions of the workers and people, but rather: an increase in wages and pensions, recovering lost purchasing power; the regulation of prices of essential goods and services; the fight against all forms of speculation, including a special tax on the profits of economic groups and multinationals; the promotion of peace instead of the escalation of confrontation, war and sanctions.
For the PCP, the increase in reference interest rate does not have to be reflected in the worsening of bank instalments for those who have home loans. Instead of measures such as those decided by the PS government, which in practice facilitate banking profits and harm the population (included in the +Housing package), it is imperative that the banks' profits bear the increase in interest rates as we been proposing.
For the PCP, this decision by the ECB makes even clearer whom the monetary policy and the Euro serve, as well as the costs for the country of the loss of monetary sovereignty. A policy with which PS, PSD, CDS, Chega and IL agree and with which it is necessary to make a break.
