In an interview published in Le Figaro on Sunday, ECB President Christine Lagarde said , “At the next meeting in September, there could be a further hike of the policy rate or perhaps a pause.”
But, she further clarified that “a pause, whenever it occurs, in September or later, would not necessarily be definitive.” This suggests that the ECB remains flexible in its approach to policy adjustments, committed to assessing the economic landscape on a meeting-by-meeting basis.
Elucidating on ECB’s mandate, Lagarde said, “We are committed to returning inflation to our target in a timely manner and for this we need a sufficiently restrictive policy in terms of level and length.”
On a more positive note, Lagarde pointed out that recent Q2 GDP figures for France, Germany, and Spain were “quite encouraging.” These data points, she suggested, lend support to their projection of a 0.9% GDP growth in Eurozone this year.
