ECB’s Stournaras: ‘We’re Close to the End’

16 May 2023

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Tuesday reiterated that the ECB was close to the end of the current monetary policy tightening phase.

In an interview with Greek television channel Naftemporiki TV, Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, said that the increase of 375bp since the start of the ECB’s current hiking cycle was ‘a very large monetary tightening and if we add to it the reduction of the European Central Bank's balance sheet, which is a reduction of around 12%, then we are now talking about perhaps the biggest tightening together with that of the 70s since World War II.

‘So, we're close to the end’, he continued. ‘Now whether it's one more hike, two hikes, I can't tell you, that will depend on the inflation forecast, on the forecast of financial conditions in the euro area, we're already seeing a tightening of financial conditions, so we can't say as of now whether we will have one or two more increases.’