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Today’s hot inflation could be likened to a speeding vehicle down a hill. In order to slow down, there would be a need to push the brakes. In this case, interest rate hikes are more of brakes in this situation, but some major central banks hit the brakes faster than others.
To understand how interest rates influence inflation, one needs to understand how inflation works. Inflation is the result of too much money for chasing few goods. This has occurred amid a surge in demand and supply chain disruptions that are getting worse and worse because of the war in Ukraine.
To combat inflation, central banks will raise their policy rate. This is the rate they charge commercial banks for loans or pay commercial banks for deposits. Commercial banks, in turn, pass on a portion of these higher rates to their customers, which reduces the purchasing power of consumers and companies. For example, it becomes more expensive to borrow money for a house or a new car.
Interest rate hikes act to slow spending and encourage saving. This motivates companies to increase prices at a slower rate, or lower prices, to stimulate demand.
With inflation rates hitting multi-decade highs in some countries, many central banks have announced interest rate hikes. Below, we show how the inflation rate and policy interest rate have changed for select countries and regions since January 2022. The jurisdictions are ordered from highest to lowest current inflation rate.
| Country | Jan 2022 Inflation | May 2022 Inflation | Jan 2022 Policy Rate | Jun 2022 Policy Rate |
| UK | 5.50% | 9.10% | 0.25% | 1.25% |
| U.S. | 7.50% | 8.60% | 0.00%-0.25% | 1.50%-1.75% |
| Euro Area | 5.10% | 8.10% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Canada | 5.10% | 7.70% | 0.25% | 1.50% |
| Sweden | 3.90% | 7.20% | 0.00% | 0.25% |
| New Zealand | 5.90% | 6.90% | 0.75% | 2.00% |
| Norway | 3.20% | 5.70% | 0.50% | 1.25% |
| Australia | 3.50% | 5.10% | 0.10% | 0.85% |
| Switzerland | 1.60% | 2.90% | -0.75% | -0.25% |
| Japan | 0.50% | 2.50% | -0.10% | -0.10% |
The US Fed has been the most aggressive with its interest rate hikes. It has raised its policy rate by 1.5% since January, with half of that increase occurring at the June 2022 meeting. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said the committee would like to “do a little more front-end loading” to bring policy rates to normal levels.
The Eurozone has 3 policy rates; the data above represents the main refinancing operations rate. Inflation data is as of May 2022 except for New Zealand and Australia, where the latest quarterly data is as of March 2022.
