The European Central Bank just raised interest rates by 75 basis points for its second jumbo hike in a row

• The European Central Bank raised interest rates by 75 basis points for the 2nd time in a row Thursday.
• The central bank opted for another rate hike to tame soaring inflation and promised more.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates by 75 basis points for a second meeting in a row Thursday, as its tries to tame red-hot inflation without upending the eurozone economy.

The ECB's governing council said its base deposit rate will increase from 0.75% to 1.5%, as it matched the record-sized hike it implemented in September.

The central bank started its tightening program in July, when it raised rates for the first time in 11 years with a 50 basis point increase.

The ECB is battling to curb soaring prices across the continent. Eurozone inflation hit a record high of 10% in September, as disruption caused by Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine squeezes food and gas supplies.

"We will have further rate increases in the future," ECB President Christine Lagarde said after the decision announcement. "So the normalization process continues.

"And at some point in time, we will have of course to identify the rate which will deliver the 2% medium-term target that we have."

"Economic activity in the euro area is likely to have slowed significantly in the third quarter of the year, and we expect a further weakening in the remainder of this year and the beginning of next year," she added.

The eurozone's central bank started its tightening program in July, when it raised rates for the first time in 11 years with a 50 basis point increase.

As well as hiking interest rates, the central bank took the first steps towards trimming its 8.8 billion euro balance sheet by raising interest rates on its Targeted-Long-Term-Refinancing Operations, which are subsidies it provides to commercial banks.

The euro fell below dollar parity to $0.9994 after the ECB decision, having traded at $1.0022 just before. It has recovered somewhat to $1.0031 at last check, but is 0.55% lower so far Thursday.

A second consecutive 75 basis point hike shows means that the ECB is now moving into "restrictive territory" as it tried to curb price rises, according to analysts.

"At the current juncture of a looming recession and high uncertainty, normalizing monetary policy is one thing but moving into restrictive territory is another thing," ING's global head of macro Carsten Brzeski said.

"With today's rate hike, the ECB has come very close to the point at which normal could become restrictive."