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STORY: The European Central bank raised its key interest rates by an unprecedented 75 basis points on Thursday (September 8).

It showed the ECB has proritized fighting inflation even as the bloc's economy heads for a likely winter recession.

The governing body raised its deposit rate to 0.75% from zero, and lifted its main refinancing rate to 1.25%.

Those are the highest levels since 2011.

The move comes with inflation at a 50-year high, and as policymakers fear rapid price growth could become entrenched.

That could lower the value of household savings and set off a wage/price spiral.

The ECB also raised its inflation projections again - next year, it changed the outlook to 5.5%, up from 3.5%

Markets were not too surprised by Thursday's announcement as investors had already priced it in.

But there could be even more moves on the way, as the ECB confirmed further rate increases are likely.

Policymakers have made the case for frontloading the hikes, partly to send a strong signal about the central bank's inflation-fighting commitment

Some are now openly talking about a recession, and the ECB's new projections show sharply lower growth in the coming years.

The economic worries have had the euro currency at around parity against the dollar for weeks - not far from a two-decade low hit earlier this month.