European Central Bank Governing Council member Peter Kazimir said current events in financial markets events haven’t altered his view that interest rates will need to keep rising in due course.
(Bloomberg) — European Central Bank Governing Council member Peter Kazimir said current events in financial markets events haven’t altered his view that interest rates will need to keep rising in due course.
“The 50 basis-point increase was inevitable and necessary,” the Slovak central-bank governor said in a statement published on its website on Friday, the day after the latest hike was announced. “The situation is delicate, but we are not yet at the finish line.”
Core inflation, stripping out volatile elements such as food, reached 5.6% in February, and it’s “stubbornly sticky,” Kazimir said. While rate increases are starting to have an effect, the risks to price growth remain “much greater to the upside.”
The governor said it’s useless to speculate on what the ECB will do at its May decision, but that the direction of travel is clear.
“The future development of inflation over the entire horizon of our forecast period speaks clearly in favor of the need to continue,” he said. “Whether, how vigorously, in how many steps and to where — time and data will show.”
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