ECB’s Centeno: Most Likely Move Is to Continue to Cut Interest Rates

23 August 2024

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Mário Centeno on Friday said that the ECB’s next steps were likely to ease monetary policy further.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television at Jackson Hole, Centeno, who heads the Banco de Portugal, said, ‘Of course the most likely move in terms of monetary policy is to continue cutting rates.’

‘September — it’s easy’, he elaborated. ‘October is going to be a funny meeting. It’s always dependent on data. But it’s not on data points, it’s on data trajectories. We don’t look at data points, we look at data trends.’

It was important that the disinflation process did not compromise economic growth even in a soft-landing scenario, he said. ‘We need to bring inflation down with the lowest possible sacrifice’, he said.