Standard & Poor's Global: Rising inflation prompts the European Central Bank to consider raising interest rates.

Diego Iscaro, head of European economics at the S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that the European Central Bank's rate hike is increasingly becoming a question of "when" rather than "if." The overall inflation rate in the eurozone rose from 2.6% in March to 3.0% in April, exceeding market expectations. He pointed out that the latest data poses a real challenge for the European Central Bank. Even in an optimistic scenario, inflation is expected to continue to rise in the coming months. Iscaro stated that rising prices are rapidly pushing up inflation expectations. "The market consensus is that the European Central Bank will keep interest rates unchanged at its meeting later today, but the discussion is increasingly shifting from 'whether policy rates will rise' to 'when they will rise'."