ECB’s Vasle: Next Steps to Depend on Economic and Financial Data

15 September 2023

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Boštjan Vasle on Friday said that the ECB’s next monetary policy steps would depend on incoming economic and financial data.

In a statement posted to the website of the Bank of Slovenia, which he heads, Vasle said with respect to yesterday’s decision by the Council to hike interest rates by another 25bp, ‘Based on our current assessment, we believe that with this hike, the ECB's key interest rates have reached levels that, if maintained for a sufficiently long period, will make a significant contribution to returning inflation to the target level.’

‘I would like to underline that, as has been the case so far, the next steps will depend on the current situation, in particular economic and financial data, the evolution of underlying inflation and the strength of the impact of our actions’, he continued. ‘Accordingly, our future decisions will continue to ensure that interest rate levels remain sufficiently restrictive for as long as it takes for inflation to return to our 2% target in time.’