ECB’s Makhlouf: Comfortable With One More Rate Cut in 2024; Two Is Too Many

2 July 2024

By Isabel Teles – SINTRA, Portugal (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf on Tuesday said that he agreed with the pricing of one more interest rate cut this year, but that from today’s perspective, two cuts would be too many, even if not excluded.

In an interview with Reuters on the margins of the ECB Forum on Central Banking, Makhlouf, who heads the Central Bank of Ireland, said, ‘I am comfortable with expectations of another cut’.

‘I think two cuts today, at the beginning of July, is probably going a little bit too far. I'm not saying I'd rule it out’, he elaborated.

The Governing Council should ‘allow time’ to collect and analyse more data, especially related to services inflation, which was the focus, he said.

The June flash inflation released Tuesday ‘confirms the direction that we are moving in’, he said.

‘I expect interest rates to be lower than they are today if we continue to be successful, as I expect us to be successful, in achieving our 2% target in a sustainable manner,’ he said.