Lagarde pushes back on market rate-hike bets after energy costs soar

DUBLIN, Sept 18 (Reuters) - European Central Bank interest rates are not moving in lockstep with oil and gas prices, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Friday, pushing back on market bets for aggressive rate hikes on soaring energy costs.

"Interest rates do not move in lockstep with the price of energy because, obviously, the price of energy and its impact on prices has also an impact on other factors, including notably growth and consumption, and we factor in all these elements," Lagarde told a news conference in Dublin.

The comments come just hours after ECB Vice President Boris Vujcic also appeared to temper investor bets, arguing that the ECB will look at a much wider set of economic indicators when deciding its next moves.

Financial markets now see between three and four more rate hikes in the next year on top of two moves in recent months as both oil and gas prices are near the ECB's "adverse" scenario and may push inflation close to 4% by year end.

In another possible hint that markets may be expecting too much from the ECB, Lagarde said the ECB was still in a situation where a "measured" response was enough to contain the bloc's inflation problem.

"We are taking a measured response to the current situation," Lagarde added. "We think that we are well positioned in order to respond to more data, more information, more numbers, to have a good assessment of changes."

Lagarde also downplayed concerns about rising government borrowing costs and said these were primarily a reflection of global events, rather than local issues.

"We don't see any disorderly movements," she said. "We don't see any tension, ... this is a global movement that affects all bonds, and particularly at the long end of the curve, for multiple reasons, but no disorderly function."

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Jan Harvey and Toby Chopra)