ECB Governing Council member Peter Kazimir has asserted that the recent events in financial markets have not altered his stance on the necessity of continuing with monetary tightening. The Slovak central bank governor acknowledged the delicate nature of the current situation but emphasized that the end goal has not yet been reached.
Kazimir said, “even the current events on the financial markets do not change my view that we need to continue,” with monetary tightening.
“I am very well aware of the delicacy of the situation … but we are not yet at the finish line,” he added.
He said underlying inflation is “stubbornly sticky”. “There are risks to inflation on both sides, but in my view, upward risks are much greater.”
Nevertheless, he also noted it was useless to speculate what ECB could do at next meeting on May 4. ECB raised interest rate by 50bps yesterday, but omitted tightening reference in the accompanying statement.
