ECB’s Lane: Interest Rate Cuts Not a Near-Term Topic

12 January 2024

By Isabel Teles – DUBLIN (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Philip Lane on Friday said that interest rate cuts would not be discussed soon.

Answering questions from the audience during a conference organised by the Dublin City University, Lane said, ‘of course we’re going to be looking at incoming data, but this [interest rate cut] is not a near-term topic.’

The ECB was monitoring inflation developments and December inflation ‘broadly confirms our assessment from the December meeting, our December projections’, he said, but further data showing the convergence to the inflation target were necessary for the discussion of an interest rate reduction.  

‘Once we’ve developed sufficient confidence that we’re firmly on the way back to 2% inflation target, then we the rate cut topic will obviously come to the forefront’, he said. ‘But right now, that is a tentative conjecture, and we will need to see the incoming data before we move beyond that.’