ECB’s Nagel: Open to Considering Another Rate Step in October

8 October 2024

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said on Monday expressed a potential willingness to cut interest rates again at the ECB's October meeting.

Speaking in the German podcast Table Briefings, Nagel, who heads the Bundesbank, said that ‘I am certainly open to considering whether we could possibly take another interest rate step.'

The evolution of inflation was ‘good news’ and the ECB was clearly advancing towards the 2% target, he said.

Regarding Germany’s economic weakness, he said that ‘there are indeed indications that the development in the second half of the year is weaker than we thought in early summer’.

Nagel backed the German government’s new projections for the domestic economy. Germany’s GDP is now expected to shrink 0.2% in 2024 compared to the government’s previous projection of 0.3% growth.

He also opposed the new tariffs proposed by the EU for Chinese cars.

‘Tariffs and mutual escalation into protectionism - that cannot be in Europe's interest. I am clearly in favour of talks and negotiations with China’, he said.