ECB’s Lagarde: ‘We Need to Really Bring Inflation Back to 2%’

25 October 2023

By Isabel Teles – ATHENS (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Wednesday, one day ahead of the ECB's Governing Council meeting, said that there was still work to be done to bring inflation back to target.

In an interview with Greek television channel Antenna TV, Lagarde, disregarding the prohibition on monetary policy-related comments in the week leading up to a Council meeting, said that the ECB was ‘not done yet’ with controlling inflation.

‘[W]e need to really bring inflation back to 2% in the medium term because that’s our target and that’s the price stability mission we have’, she said.

‘We need to be very attentive; we need to monitor the situation, we need to look at prices and wages and profit units and all that to see where the risks are’, she said. ‘But for the moment, I am confident that we are on a journey to bring inflation back to 2%.’

Asked about the possible effect of the crisis in the Middle East on oil prices, she said the situation was being observed and that the consequences would only be known in the future. 

‘We monitor that carefully, and that’s particularly the case, because energy plays such a major role in our societies, in our economy, either directly or indirectly’, she said.