ECB Governing Council member Ardo Hansson said urged not to be more specific on forward guidance yet. He said “To be any more precise than that, to lock in a date, to tie our hands would be rather risky”. Instead, “when we get closer, we can have another discussion if we need to adjust the language again, but this is not a debate we are going to have just yet.”

Separately, another Governing Council member Olli Rehn “core inflation is still rather weak in the euro zone at around 1 percent, as it has been for the last couple of years, so an accommodative monetary policy is still needed in Europe.”

ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a speech that a”wider discussion today” among central banks is whether they should “commit to explicitly make up for inflation misses when they have spent quite some time below their inflation goals.”

“If credible, such a strategy can strengthen the capacity of monetary policy to stabilise the economy when faced with the lower bound,” she said. “Promise of inflation overshooting raises inflation expectations and therefore lowers real interest rates.”

“While make-up strategies may be less successful when people are not perfectly rational in their decisions – which is probably a good approximation of the reality we face – the usefulness of such an approach could be examined,” she added.

Full speech here.

In ECB’s Consumer Expectations Survey, consumers’ mean perceived inflation over the past 12 months increased markedly from May’s 8.2% to June’s 8.6%. Median inflation perceptions over the previous 12 months rose from 6.6% to 7.2%.

Mean inflation expectations for 12 month ahead rose from 6.3% to 6.6%. Median inflation expectations for 12 months ahead rose from 4.9% to 5.0%.

Mean economic growth expectations for the next 12 months dropped from -1.0% to -1.3%. Median economic growth expectations was unchanged at 0%.

Full release here.

ECB Governing Council member Gediminas Simkus said he choice for the next rate hike is 75, adding that “a couple of options may be on the table but 50 is the minimum.” He indicated that ECB should target “as soon as possible” on reducing its balance sheet.

At the same event another Governing Council member Madis Muller said “inflation calls for significant rate hikes,” but it’s “too early to say how much in basis points.”

Also Governing Count member Mario Council said, “Right now frontloading other debates may in my opinion have a destabilizing effect that we really need to avoid. We have a path towards normalization of monetary policy and that’s the focus right now.”

ECB Governing Council member Pablo Hernandez de Cos said, “recent data on euro area inflation and some of its key determinants are somewhat encouraging, but the overall situation still requires caution”.

But he added that the evidence so far was very preliminary. Careful monitoring is required in some areas, including residual pass-through of inflation shocks, and the symmetry of pass-through of energy price delcines to core inflation and wages, as well ass the effects of Chinese reopening.

“All these will have to be assessed as part of the full projections exercise under way in the run-up to our March meeting,” De Cos said.