European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said it’s sensible to assume negative interest rates will be gone by the end of the third quarter, and said the prospect of more aggressive hikes will depend on the economic outlook, Bloomberg News reported. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, he endorsed President Christine Lagarde’s monetary policy roadmap signaling two quarter-point increases. When asked if there could be a case for bigger moves as sought by some officials, he said that such a decision would hang on the data and forecasts available at the time.

The president of the European Central Bank on Monday gave the clearest sign yet that policymakers will aim to raise interest rates as soon as July to ease surging inflation, the Associated Press reported. In a blog post on the Frankfurt, Germany-based bank’s website, President Christine Lagarde said she expects asset purchases that buoy the economy would end “very early in the third quarter.” “This would allow us a rate lift-off at our meeting in July, in line with our forward guidance,” she wrote.

Italy expects to attract at least two rival bids for ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, before the deadline for its part privatisation expires at midnight on Monday, Reuters reported. Shipping group MSC, which is working with Germany's Lufthansa, is seen as the leading candidate, but a consortium comprising U.S. private equity fund Certares, Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines Inc is also expected to make a competitive offer.

Strict limits on public borrowing and spending will be suspended for another year, the European Union said on Monday, in order to help member nations deal with the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine, the New York Times reported. The stringent fiscal rules were temporarily relaxed in March 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, allowing for generous state aid to struggling businesses and citizens. They were due to be reinstated at the start of next year.

Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia will call on Tuesday for the confiscation of Russian assets frozen by the European Union to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine after Russia's invasion, a joint letter by the four showed on Monday, Reuters reported. On May 3, Ukraine estimated the amount of money needed to rebuild the country from the destruction wrought by Russia at around $600 billion. But with the war still in full swing, the sum is likely to have risen sharply, the letter said.

The Swiss National Bank will tighten monetary policy if inflation in Switzerland remains persistently high, governing board member Andrea Maechler said in an interview published on Monday, Reuters reported. The European Central Bank on Monday became the latest institution to signal it was hiking rates to combat soaring inflation, following similar moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. The SNB could follow suit, should Swiss inflation remain outside its target range 0-2%. April saw the highest inflation rate in Switzerland for 14 years, with prices rising by 2.5%.

The German economy, Europe's largest, is on track for a tepid economic recovery but risks are tilted to the downside and fiscal policy should be flexible in an uncertain environment, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, Reuters reported. In a statement after a mission to Germany, the IMF said it projected growth to slow to about 2% in 2022, picking up in 2023 to slightly above 2% if energy prices and supply bottlenecks subside, and COVID-19 infections remain under control. "Growth would then decline toward potential after 2024," the IMF said in its so-called Article IV report.

China is quietly ramping up purchases of oil from Russia at bargain prices, according to shipping data and oil traders who spoke to Reuters, filling the vacuum left by Western buyers backing away from business with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February. The move by the world's biggest oil importer comes a month after it initially cut back on Russian supplies, for fear of appearing to openly support Moscow and potentially expose its state oil giants to sanctions.

Seizing Russian state assets to help finance the rebuilding of war-torn Ukraine remains a possibility, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Friday, but he added that no decision on the matter was taken at a meeting with his G7 counterparts, Reuters reported. "We talked about the continuation of sanctions in connection with Ukraine and discussed the issue of the confiscation of Russian assets," Lindner said, wrapping up day two of the talks.

Russia rushed forward two payments on its international debt on Friday in its latest attempt to stave off a default that has looked on cards since its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. A week before the interest payments are due and just five days before a key U.S. waiver allowing such transfers expires, Russia's finance ministry said it had wired $71.25 million for a dollar-denominated bond and 26.5 million euros ($28 million) for euro-denominated notes.