Interest rates: three central banks facing one agonising decision | Larry Elliott

In the fight against inflation the ECB, Bank of England and Federal Reserve risk either doing too much too soon, or too little too late

Whatever it takes. With those three words the then head of the European Central Bank quashed doubts in July 2012 about whether the euro had a future. Mario Draghi's message to the financial markets was that they should not doubt his commitment to defend the single currency. The warning worked.

Ten years later, the ECB is again in the spotlight, but so are two other major central banks - the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. All three are facing the same problem: what to do about annual inflation rates that are nudging 10%.