Finding Agreement on ECB Rate Hikes More Difficult as Hiking Cycle Nears End, Lagarde Says

19 May 2023

By Xavier D’Arcy – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – It is becoming more difficult to reach consensus on the European Central Bank Governing Council as the ECB reaches the end of its hiking cycle, President Christine Lagarde said on Friday.

In an interview with Spanish public radio and television RTVE, Lagarde said that monetary policy was reaching a delicate point, but promised the ECB would be courageous in its upcoming decisions.

‘The closer you get to the end of journey - and we are not there - but the closer you get, the more subtle it becomes, and the more difficult it is to calibrate the right timing, the right pace, the right level and to reach consensus’, she said

The ECB was ‘heading towards more delicate decisions going forward, but we will be courageous and we will take the decisions that are needed to take inflation back to 2%’, she said.