ECB Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said today, ECB has reached the point “act”. And, “the balance of advantage has tilted decisively towards the need for further action, albeit not necessarily at a similar pace to that of other central banks”.
“Our objective is for inflation to be at 2% over the medium term – levels are significantly above that now, and it is time for the Council to move to end net asset purchases under the asset purchase programme next month or in July,” he said.
Makhlouf added, it’s “realistic to expect that the first move in the ECB’s interest rates will happen soon after net asset purchases end and that rates are likely to be in positive territory by early next year.” But he didn’t specify when the rate hike would occurs.
“The era of negative rates is reaching its conclusion,” he said.
