ECB’s Centeno: ‘We Are Not Here to Provide Surprises to Anyone’

11 May 2022

By David Barwick – LJUBLJANA (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Mario Centeno on Wednesday urged that monetary policy proceed in a predictable manner.

In remarks at the 30th anniversary conference of Banka Slovenije, Centeno, who heads Banco de Portugal, said that ‘[t]he gradualism also plays a role there, to act in a predictable way.’

‘We actually entered already into a process of normalisation of policy’, he said. ‘Again, that must be predictable. … It is a sequence of steps that has a duration, that has a magnitude. … We are not here to provide surprises to anyone.’

Neither monetary nor fiscal policy should ‘eliminate the signal that prices give to economic agents to direct their decision’, he said.

‘Whereas Covid was always interpreted, and I think rightly so, as a temporary impact in our economies, the challenges we face today are much more structural in nature’, he said.