ECB’s Holzmann: Waiting Is Best Alternative Under Such High Uncertainty

9 April 2025

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Robert Holzmann said on Wednesday that the ECB would be better off if it took a wait-and-see approach with regard to next week’s monetary policy decision.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Holzmann, who heads the Austrian National Bank, said that he was ‘always open for good arguments but for the time being, I don’t see a reason for a cut.’

‘As a strategy, waiting dominates alternatives in both directions if faced with uncertainty that will likely clear in a few months’, he added.

Holzmann described the idea of taking 50bp steps as ‘ludicrous’.

‘We should move extremely carefully and certainly shouldn’t accelerate if the outlook is this uncertain’, he said.

The disinflation process was ‘well advanced’, he said.

‘Our interest rate is low, so there’s no reason to panic’, he said.

Growth could be lower than initially expected by the ECB, according to Holzmann.

‘Everything hinges on how tariff threats will play out in the end’, he said.

‘At the moment it’s difficult to say in which direction we’ll move’ with regard to inflation and interest rates, he said.

Holzmann said that he had sensed strong support for an April pause in the last meeting but that he no longer knew what would happen.