ECB’s Kažimír: Core Inflation’s Continued Rise Shows That We Have a Problem Yet to Be Solved

14 May 2023

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank may have to hike interest rates longer than expected to deal with the ongoing problem of increasing core inflation, ECB Governing Council member Peter Kažimír said Sunday.

In an interview on Slovak news portal HK online, Kažimír said, ‘Headline inflation in the Eurozone sometimes falls and then rises again a bit but the key point is that core inflation is still creeping up. And that's proof that we have a problem and that we haven't solved the problem yet.’

‘I am convinced that there are more meetings ahead of us where we will decide on raising rates and I think we will raise them further’, he was quoted as saying.

‘It's no secret that given the fundamentals I would also be satisfied with a 50bp increase in interest rates, but a 25bp increase is a return to normal’, he said. ‘And that means we may stay with interest rate hikes longer than we originally thought.’