ECB’s Lagarde: Current Interest Rates Appropriate to Help Restore Price Stability

4 October 2023

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Wednesday reiterated that the ECB assessed key interest rates to be sufficiently restrictive.

In a pre-recorded video message opening an ECB conference on monetary policy, Lagarde used virtually the same words as during the press conference after the Governing Council meeting of 14 September.

‘Now, based on our current assessment, we consider that the key ECB interest rates have reached levels that, maintained for a sufficiently long duration, will make a substantial contribution to the timely return of inflation to our medium-term target’, she said.

Inflation prospects, underlying inflation and monetary policy transmission strength would be the basis of the ECB’s future decisions, she said.