ECB hawk Sabine Lautenschlaeger said that “June might be the month to decide once and for all to gradually end net asset purchases by the end of this year.” And, “a first hike around the middle of 2019 is not entirely out of the ballpark.”
Despite recent soft batch of data, she emphasized that “we are seeing that the pace of growth has become more moderate, but we are not seeing a turning point”. And, “we remain confident in the strength of the economy.”
