ECB board member Isabel Schnabel said, “Both the likelihood and the cost of current high inflation becoming entrenched in expectations are uncomfortably high. In this environment, central banks need to act forcefully.”
Governing Council member Martins Kazaks said, “Frontloading rate hikes is a reasonable policy choice. We should be open to discussing both 50 and 75 basis points as possible moves. From the current perspective, it should at least be 50.”
Another Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said ECB needs to be at “neutral rate” before the end of the year, “after another significant step in September… Have no doubt that we at the ECB would if needed raise rates further beyond normalization: bringing inflation back to 2% is our responsibility; our will and our capacity to deliver on our mandate are unconditional.”
Governing Council member Olli Rehn said, “The reality is that we have excessively high inflation globally, also in Europe — that’s why it’s action time. The next step will be a significant move in September, depending on the incoming data and the inflation outlook.”
