ECB’s Makhlouf: ‘Too Early To Start Planning for a Pause in Our Tightening of Policy’

24 April 2023

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf on Monday said that the ECB had already significantly tightened its monetary policy but could not yet contemplate pausing in the hiking cycle.

In a blog post on the website of the Central Bank of Ireland, which he heads, Makhlouf wrote, ‘Our recent decisions represent a significant tightening of the monetary policy stance, commensurate to the significant challenges to price stability we have been facing.’

At next week’s monetary policy meeting, the Governing Council ‘will be especially focused on incoming data’, he said. ‘But on the evidence so far, it is too early to start planning for a pause in our tightening of policy.’

The evidence now available confirms the need for policy ‘to continue at restrictive levels to help re-set the balance between supply and demand in the economy and bring down inflation’, he said.

In an uncertain environment, recent turbulence underscored the presence of banking sector vulnerabilities and justified the buffers that shore up the system, he said.

‘And as central bankers, we will continue our fight against high inflation to ensure that we return to our target’, he added.