ECB’s Lagarde: October Meeting to Take into Account Greater Confidence on Inflation

30 September 2024

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Monday said that the ECB’s confidence about restoring price stability had strengthened lately and that this would factor into the Governing Council's rate decision in October.

Speaking before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the EU Parliament, Lagarde said that ‘the latest developments strengthen our confidence that inflation will return to target in a timely manner. We will take that into account in our next monetary policy meeting in October.’

The ECB would take all the necessary decisions and stay as restrictive as needed, but ‘signs on the inflation front are an indication that the disinflationary process is well underway’, she indicated.

HICP was not the only data point which confirming a downward trend in inflation, she observed.

Asked about services inflation, Lagarde noted that the ECB had reason to believe that it was ‘also beginning to abate slowly and gradually’.

Despite this month’s Eurozone inflation reading, which Lagarde expected to be below the baseline, inflation would register an uptick in the last three months of 2024 due to base effects, she said.

‘We are beginning to see margins being compressed, absorbing higher labour costs, wages negotiations showing some deceleration in their growth - still growing but beginning to decelerate - and the labour market, which is still solid, but showing signs of reduced activity’, she explained.