ECB’s Nagel: Still Need More Data on Wages to Confirm Inflation’s Path

28 February 2024

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel on Wednesday said that more wage data were necessary to confirm that the inflation target would be reached in a timely manner.

In comments to Reuters on the margins of a G7 meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, Nagel, who heads the German Bundesbank, said, ‘We still lack more reliable data on wage developments and confirmation that with these data, we will get inflation back to 2% in 2025.’

‘Next week's projections will be an important milestone’, he added.

Reducing interest rates too soon would contribute to market volatility and hurt the ECB’s credibility if inflation rebounded, he said.  

‘We have already achieved a lot with policy’, he said. ‘We can’t make any mistakes in the final stretch of the journey.’