ECB Still Has Some Way To Go on Rate Hikes, Scicluna Says

13 April 2023

By Xavier D’Arcy – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank still has some way to go on rate hikes, ECB Governing Council member Edward Scicluna said on Thursday.

‘There is still some way to go on these rate increases’, Scicluna, who heads the Central Bank of Malta, told CNBC on the margins of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings.

The ECB was reaching the end of its hiking cycle, in his view. He said that ‘once the inflation has peaked, and the core inflation is expected to peak as well, you could say the final push is not that far.’

‘You can see the forces on both sides, making it a difficult decision… it becomes more and more difficult each time. That's a good sign that, you know, the end of the tunnel is not that far’, he said.

The ECB had to show it was serious in the face of rising core inflation, he said. ‘We are worried about core inflation not yet peaking. We're expecting it to peak and we have to show that we are serious about continuing fighting this sort of monster.’

‘We are data-driven, we say it's true, but it’s a question of whether it's 25 or 50bp’ at the ECB’s upcoming monetary policy meeting in May, he said.