ECB’s Vasle: March Rate Hike ‘Will Not Be the Last One’

3 March 2023

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Boštjan Vasle on Friday said that the ECB would continue to hike interest rates beyond the increase already intended for this month.

In opening remarks at an event at the Bank of Slovenia, which he heads, Vasle noted that new euro area inflation data had been published yesterday, commenting that ‘they are not very encouraging numbers.’

The ECB had already taken various steps to tighten monetary policy, but ‘[t]hat’s not the end of the process of course’, he said. Given the elevated nature of headline and core inflation, ‘it’s our intention to raise interest rates further.’

His ‘personal expectations’ were that the rate hike widely expected later this month ‘will not be the last one’, he said, but rather that there would be additional hikes ‘in the following months’.

Vasle said he ‘strongly’ believed that the ECB’s ‘determined action’ would ultimately restore price stability.

The process of reducing the ECB’s balance sheet would continue and hopefully accelerate, he said.