ECB’s de Guindos: ‘Convergence to 2% Inflation Will Occur in Next Six Months’

19 March 2025

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday that the ECB was feeling reassured about inflation reaching the 2% target in the next six months.

In a speech at the event V Observatorio de las Finanzas de El Español e Invertia in Madrid, de Guindos said that recent ‘inflation data have been positive; we are convinced that the disinflation process and convergence to 2% will occur in the next six months.’

De Guindos suggested that the decline to 2.3% in final Eurozone CPI data for February, released a few hours before his speech, was a positive sign.

‘The current situation is one of high uncertainty’, he said.

A tariff war with the US, one of the main elements of uncertainty according to de Guindos, could potentially bring other trade restrictions like quotas or currency devaluations that are unjustified by fundamentals, he stated.

‘A trade war has consequences mainly on economic growth, but it could also initially impact on inflation’, he said.

The second big element of uncertainty was the expected increase in defense spending by the EU, according to de Guindos.

After the recent rise in European bond yields, it was crucial that EU member states guaranteed budgetary stability despite the increase in defence spending, he said.