ECB’s de Guindos: ‘All Options Open’ in Terms of Number and Size of Cuts

29 October 2024

ECB’s de Guindos: ‘All Options Open’ in Terms of Number and Size of Cuts
Luis de Guindos, vice president of the European Central Bank, at the ECB’s Governing Council meeting in Ljubljana on October 17, 2024. Photo by Adrian Petty/ECB.

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday that the ECB would keep ‘all options open’ at future Governing Council meetings regarding the number and the magnitude of interest rate cuts.

In an interview with Italian news agency ANSA, de Guindos said that downside risks to growth were now materialising, ‘mainly because consumption is not recovering as expected.’

At the same time, ‘[m]ost measures of underlying inflation are declining’ he said.

The ECB was now ‘confident’ that the 2% inflation target would be reached at some point next year, he added.

However, there were some external factors that the ECB had to take into account, he said.

‘[T]he conflict in the Middle East has an impact on energy prices and upcoming elections could have an impact on international trade, global growth and inflation. This is one reason why we have to be very prudent with our decisions,’ he said.

Though he highlighted that the ECB was not capable of claiming ‘victory yet’, de Guindos noted that the central bank had been able to lower inflation whilst avoiding a recession in the euro area.

‘When you look at the labour market, the situation remains positive. So I hope that in the medium term it will become more evident that we are on the right track’, he said.