ECB Governing Council member Gediminas Simkus said yesterday, “core inflation remains strong and demonstrates that the fight against inflation is not over.”

“There’s a strong case for staying on the course that’s been set for the coming meetings of 50 basis-point increases. In my opinion, these 50 basis-point increases must be taken unequivocally,” he added.

“Pressures in wage growth are increasing — I expect wage increases to exceed historical averages in the euro area,” he said. “It’s something that’s happening and something we need to take into account because it affects core inflation.”

“It’s clear to me that the current economic environment requires us to deliver increases of 50 basis points in the coming meetings,” he said. “When we move to the more distant periods of the summer or next autumn, we need to wait and see.”

ECB Executive Board member Fabio Panetta said in an interview, “It was reasonable to increase rates in December and signal a similar step in February.”

“But beyond February any unconditional guidance – that is, guidance unrelated to the economic outlook – would depart from our data-driven approach.”

“Our December decisions were based on the projections available at that time. In March we will have new ones and should reassess the situation.”

“Inflation is still too high, but recent developments suggest that we can fend off the risks of second-round effects and bring down inflation by continuing to adjust our policy rates in a well-calibrated, non-mechanical way.”

Full interview here.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a speech that the “high inflation environment” is a big challenge facing Europe. And, that’s “the challenge that concerns me the most”.

“We must bring inflation down. And we will deliver on this goal,” she emphasized. “We have made it clear that ECB interest rates will still have to rise significantly at a steady pace to reach levels that are sufficiently restrictive, and stay at those levels for as long as necessary.”

“In other words, we will stay the course to ensure the timely return of inflation to our target.”

Another challenge Lagarde named is to “best protect Europe’s critical interests… as the next chapter in the globalisation story is being written”. Europe must be “prepared for a future in which the global economy could fragment”, and “develop more our own sources of growth.”

Full speech here.

ECB Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said “in my opinion, the adjustment of interest rates needs to be more gradual, taking into account the slowdown in growth of the euro area economy.”

“Given the high uncertainty, ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic turmoil, and volatility in the markets, it is very difficult to accurately predict the level at which interest rates need to be set,” he added.

ECB Governing Council member Peter Kazimir said, “An inflation drop in two consecutive months is good news. But it is not a reason to slow the tempo of raising interest rates… I am convinced that we need to deliver two more hikes by 50 basis points.”

“For me, the most important is core inflation trend,” Kazimir said. “We are halfway through. If it were up to me, I would enter summer holidays with the tightening cycle completed. But don’t ask me today, how high we will go with the rates, and how long will they need to stay there to tame inflation as needed.”

ECB Governing Council member Olli Rehn said “there are grounds for significant increases” in the key interest rate in the winter and early spring.

Rehn declined to estimate the terminal rate. “It’s certain that the rate hikes that we’ve already made and the forward guidance on upcoming hikes have the effect that markets are pricing in a lot of it into the Euribor rates,” he said.

ECB Governing Council member Klaas Knot said in a WNL interview, “expect us to raise rates by 0.5% in February and March and expect us to not be done by then and that more steps will follow in May and June.”

“In the December data, we saw a first decline in headline inflation, but that was entirely due to base effects and lower energy inflation,” Knot said. “We focus on core inflation where, unfortunately, there is no good news. Because it is still on the rise. Underlying inflationary pressures show no signs of abating yet.”

In a separate interview with La Stampa, Knot said, “At some point, of course, the risks surrounding the inflation outlook will become more balanced… That would also be a time in which we could make a further step down from 50 to 25 basis points, for instance. But we are still far away from that.”