In an interview published on Sunday, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos reiterated that ECB decided to end asset purchases in Q3. “In my opinion, there’s no reason why this shouldn’t happen in July,” he said.

As for rate hike, “it could be months, weeks or days” after ending the asset purchases. “July is possible, but that’s not to say it’s likely,” he added.

After the first hike, “we are driven by data, not by markets. Markets can sometimes be wrong. Within the Governing Council we haven’t discussed any predetermined path for rate rises.”

Full interview here.

ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane said in a Bloomberg TV interview, “the story is not the issue about are we going to move away from -0.5% for the deposit rate. The big issue which we do need to still be data-dependent about is the scale and the timing of interest-rate normalization.”

“In the near-term, yes, inflation is very high and that does carry its own risk of momentum,” Lane admitted. “On the other hand the high energy prices are eating into disposable incomes, it’s reducing consumption and the war has a scope – especially depending on how it goes – in terms of mapping into lower investment, lower consumption, confidence effects and extra pressure on energy.”

In remarks to a Committee of the European Parliament, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said, Russian invasion of Ukraine has “cast a dark shadow over” Europe, as a human tragedy and affecting the economy. Economic activity is expected to continue to growth this year, “albeit at a slower pace than was expected “. The war has “amplified the impact on consumer energy prices”.

The surge in energy prices is “reducing demand and raising production costs” while the war is “weighing heavily on business and consumer confidence and has created new bottlenecks.” These developments point to slower growth in the period ahead.

Prices increased will “most likely remain high over the coming months”. Medium term inflation expectations indicates inflation ares around the 2% target. But, ” inflation expectations have been rising in recent months though and initial signs of above-target revisions in those measures warrant close monitoring.”

He reiterated that the APP will be concluded in Q3 and changes to interest rates will follow “some time after” the end of the net purchases, and will be “gradual”.

Full remarks here.