The bank earlier expected the ECB to hike rates by 25 bps in May for a peak rate of 3.5% by June.
Money markets expect the ECB rate to peak at around 3.85% in
December this year. The ECB has raised rates by 3 percentage points since July
and promised another half a percentage increase in March, in the
hope that more expensive funding will curtail demand enough to
get price growth down from levels still above 8%.
The brokerage's more hawkish expectation was prompted by
recent data, including an upward surprise in Spanish and French
inflation numbers, as well as recent commentary from ECB chief
Philip Lane, who said that the central bank will not end rate
hikes any sooner.
"While a step-down to 25 bps is still possible in May, we no
longer view it as the baseline... and maintain our view that the
Governing Council will maintain the peak rate until the fourth
quarter of 2024," Goldman Sachs economists said in a note dated
February 28.
(Reporting by Siddarth S in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita
Bhattacharjee)