At the time, inflation was already above target but was still expected to fall below 2% again in the medium term. The war in Ukraine and broadening inflationary pressures prompted the ECB to accelerate monetary policy normalisation.
Net asset purchases have since ceased (the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) in March and the Asset Purchase Programme (APP) in July) and the ECB has raised policy rates three times. The two most recent rate hikes (of 0.75 percentage points) were the ECB's largest rate hikes ever.