ECB’s Centeno: Inflation to Continue to Decline, but Decline to Be Slower From Here on

15 November 2023

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Mário Centeno on Wednesday said that inflation would reach the ECB’s 2% target in 2025 but that its further decline would proceed more slowly.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Centeno, who heads the Banco de Portugal, said that ‘the conversions to 2% will be slower from now, I call it resistance. Overall, what is important is the medium term, and our forecast puts inflation in 2025 in 2%.’

It was necessary to be patient, he said. ‘We have been implementing this policy that is aimed at bringing inflation to 2%... We need to follow up on that.’

‘The ECB has a very clear statement on the decision-making process, we are data dependent’, he said.

The task of maintaining price stability had been a successful one, he said.

‘We need to reduce the balance sheet; we will do it but always keeping in mind the maintenance of price stability’, he said.

Commenting on the risk of recession in Europe, he said that the ‘numbers have not been great’, but were one of the side effects of monetary policy, and the deceleration would contribute to bringing inflation down.

Asked about the possibility he would serve as Portugal’s next Prime Minister, Centeno said he did not have political ambitions and was committed to his mandate at the ECB.