The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, reiterated this Wednesday that interest rates in the euro zone will remain at a restrictive level as long as inflation falls to 2% in the medium term.
Lagarde stated, at the opening of a conference on monetary policy organized by the institution itself, that the ECB’s decisions on interest rates depend on the inflation outlook, on the evolution of underlying inflation, which excludes energy and food. because they are more volatile, and the force with which rate increases reach the real economy.
“We now believe that the ECB’s key interest rates have reached levels that, if maintained for a sufficiently long period, will contribute substantially to bringing inflation closer to our medium-term objective in a timely manner,” Lagarde said.
Since July last year, the ECB has increased its interest rates by 450 basis points to 4.50% and the deposit facility to 4%.
Source: TSF
