Euribor bank-to-bank lending rates rose on Friday after the US central bank earlier in the week signalled an end to easy money and markets remain unconvinced that the European Central Bank will provide more support to the euro zone economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the US economy is expanding strongly enough for the central bank to begin slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.
Such a step towards an exit from accommodative policies is still far off in Europe, where the ECB kept its main refinancing rate unchanged at 0.5 percent on June 6. ECB President Mario Draghi said then the governing council discussed a raft of options, but decided to leave them on the shelf for now. On Tuesday, Draghi reiterated in a speech in Israel that the ECB stood ready to act if necessary, stressing that the transmission of its monetary policy was improving and it had regained better control of monetary conditions.
The three-month Euribor rate, traditionally the main gauge of unsecured bank-to-bank lending, rose to 0.216 percent from 0.214 percent. The six-month rate increased to 0.333 percent from 0.329 percent and the one-week rate rose to 0.102 percent from 0.099 percent. The overnight Eonia rate remained at 0.082 percent. Dollar-priced bank-to-bank Euribor lending rates were mixed, with three-month rates remaining at 0.45667 percent and one-week rates rising to 0.28556 percent from 0.28222 percent.