"The main concern is inflation. We do not want to bring the economy to its knees, that is not our goal. We want to tame inflation and as a central bank interest rates are our main weapon to do so. At the moment the economy is proving resilient, employment holds and unemployment is lower than ever." This was stated by the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, interviewed by a group of Spanish newspapers.

Lagarde added that the spirit of Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes" is still alive in his ECB, but with the aim of stopping inflation, which he calls "a monster that we must bring down".

"The road ahead is clear: we must continue to take the necessary measures to bring inflation back to 2% and we will do so," she said, confirming that it is "very, very likely" that there will be another rate hike of 50 basis points in March.

"We depend on data - added Lagarde - many governors are making predictions and giving their personal analysis. As President of the ECB I have to focus on making decisions, which must be data-driven. We don't have a rate cap, we have the goal of bringing inflation to 2%. I can say that rates will go up, because we still have a lot of work to do."