(Bloomberg) — European Central Bank interest rates at their current levels will help bring euro-area inflation to the 2% target, according to Vice President Luis de Guindos.
(Bloomberg) — European Central Bank interest rates at their current levels will help bring euro-area inflation to the 2% target, according to Vice President Luis de Guindos.
“We reckon this level of rates, if maintained over time, will make a substantial contribution to our goal, which is the convergence of inflation toward the 2% target,” Guindos told a conference in San Sebastian, Spain, on Monday.
After 10 consecutive hikes in borrowing costs, markets and economists now believe that the ECB is at peak rates. That notion was supported by the most recent set on consumer-price data, which showed that both headline and core inflation eased in September.
That trend will continue in coming months, Guindos said.
Bank of Portugal Governor Mario Centeno, speaking at a conference on financial stability in Lisbon on Monday, said persistently high inflation may have “disruptive effects” on households and businesses, and that the recent ECB Governing Council decisions reflect that concern.
Centeno, among the Council’s more dovish members, also said that the cycle of 450 basis points of rate hikes by the ECB in little more than a year has been “demanding.”
–With assistance from Joao Lima.
(Updates with comment from Centeno starting in penultimate paragraph.)
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