ECB Governing Council member Martins Kazaks expressed concerns about the persistent high inflation, indicating that an economic slowdown may not be enough to counter it. He also pushed back against market expectations of an ECB rate cut in the first half of next year.
Kazaks stated, “The softness of the economy is unlikely to deal with inflation, which is still very high, with strong risks of persistence.”
Further suggesting the need for rate hikes beyond July, Kazaks said, “In my view, we will still need to raise rates and I don’t think that in July we’ll be comfortable enough to say: ‘we’re done’. I think rates will need to be raised past July but when and by how much will be data-dependent.”
Highlighting the divergence between his stance and market sentiments, he remarked, “The major problem with market pricing is the expectation of rates coming down so quickly. In my view, it’s wrong and the reason is that the market must be pricing in a different macro scenario with inflation coming down much more quickly.”
His views on potential rate cuts were very clear. Kazaks sees the need for rate cuts only when “it becomes quite certain that inflation is about to start significantly and persistently undershooting our target of 2%. And not at the end of the forecast period but towards the middle of the forecast period.”
