The socialist MEPs Pedro Marques and Margarida Marques have met this Monday with Christine Lagarde to ask the European Central Bank (ECB) to stop raising interest rates. Speaking to TSFPedro Marques, who refused to specify the ECB president’s reaction to the appeal, argues that the time is right to stop the rise.
“The ECB has already raised interest rates a lot and we do not have an inflationary policy on the part of the European States and, therefore, inflation has already begun to fall significantly. This is really the time, particularly after the summer, to stop and give space to see the effects of everything that has already been done on inflation and not continue to make families and companies suffer with more interest rate rises ”, explained the MEP who was part of the mission of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.
Underlining that “in fact there was a significant growth in profits at the same time as inflation rose”, the socialist explains that if on the one hand “it is important that the banks are solid”, on the other hand “it is important that people see interest on their deposits and not just on loans.
“The banks actually had an increase in profits here to stabilize after the Covid-19 crisis, and we understand that it happened, (…) but people want to know that the banks are actually stronger and not just more strong bank accounts. of its shareholders who receive the dividends,” he continued.
The MEP, who insists that he told Christine Lagarde that banks should play an important role in helping families, highlights the work being done by the European Parliament in this regard.
“I can tell you that, as always, the ECB maintains a regular level of scrutiny with the European Parliament, which is in fact the entity that, according to the terms of the treaties, can and must scrutinize the work of the ECB and in this permanent dialogue that we have, today [segunda-feira passamos essa mensagem muito clara”, concluiu.
*com Cláudia Alves Mendes
Source: TSF
