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ECB’s Holzmann: ‘We Don’t Know Yet in What Direction Monetary Policy Should Be Best Moved’

24 April 2025

ECB’s Holzmann: ‘We Don’t Know Yet in What Direction Monetary Policy Should Be Best Moved’
Robert Holzmann, governor of the Austrian National Bank, at the OeNB Chamber concert with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Frankfurt on December 11, 2024. Photo by Bernd Roselieb/ECB under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Robert Holzmann said on Thursday that it was not yet clear in which direction the ECB should move its monetary policy.

In an interview with CNBC, Holzmann, governor of the Austrian National Bank, said that ‘unless the uncertainty subsides, by the right decisions, we will have to hold back a number of our decisions, and hence, we don’t know yet in what direction monetary policy should be best moved.’

There had been ‘broad consensus’ among the Governing Council in its last meeting with regards to the 25bp interest-rate cut, he said.

The ECB did not know the extent to which Europe was going to retaliate against US tariffs, he said, and this would be inflationary.

‘Without countermeasures, quite likely the price pressure is downward. And for the time being, we don’t know yet the direction’, he added.

The high uncertainty affected economic growth, exchange rates and financial markets, according to Holzmann.

‘So, at the moment, we look at everything and try to make sense out of it’, he said. ‘But for the time being, it’s too early to say, this is the data to look at. We need the decisions.’

 

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