The rate hike is here, the path is not

The decision that the morning had flagged as expected has arrived: the Governing Council of the European Central Bank raised the three key interest rates by 25 basis points, with the deposit rate at 2.50%, the main refinancing rate at 2.65%, the marginal lending rate at 2.90%. It is the second increase since June, with the July pause in between, and the meeting was held in Berlin, hosted by the Bundesbank. The fact is the hike; what is missing, and what the opening reports as such, is any commitment on the subsequent path.

The other story that changes from the morning is Italian and procedural. At 6:30 we had the first floor vote in the Senate, with the preliminary constitutional questions rejected. In the afternoon the debate moves to substance: the opposition’s sub-amendment, first signed by Parrini, which would have removed the blocked list leaders in favor of preferential voting without pre-set lists, was rejected 68 votes in favor to 99 against. The blocked list leaders from the center-right’s unified amendment remain. The second piece on this subject covers the amendments dividing the majority, including the lowering of the threshold for the majority bonus from 42% to 41%.

Three stories arise as offshoots of as many morning pieces. The funeral of King Harald V in Oslo is joined by the episode of Zelensky’s plane taking off from Moldova, as reported by Norwegian Prime Minister Støre to NRK: we publish it as an attributed statement, not as a confirmed fact. The morning had opened Sport with tennis: here is the Champions League, Napoli-Arsenal 0-1 and Roma in Istanbul tonight. Cinema & Spettacoli had Toronto; now it has Monday’s Emmys, with The Pitt at 25 nominations.

Two stories are added that the morning did not contain: the fire aboard the ferry MV June Aster in Coron, in the Philippines, with five dead and 87 people still to be located according to the Coast Guard — figures the piece publishes with the reference time, since for an ongoing event that is the only honest way to report them — and the WHO’s request for 1.3 billion dollars for six months of response to the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in Congo, while the Ugandan epidemic has been declared over.

This edition therefore updates Economy and Markets, Italy, Foreign Affairs and Geopolitics, News, Health, Cinema & Spettacoli and Sport, plus the Briefs. Culture, Europe and Tech & AI remain with the 6:30 pieces, published and accessible on the front page and in the section pages. Nine pieces planned, nine published, none dropped.

The text of the electoral law remains before the Senate floor. The newspaper returns tomorrow morning at 6:30.