ECB’s Nagel: ‘I Am Open to Incoming Data’ for June Meeting

14 May 2025

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said on Wednesday that incoming data would help him reach a decision for the Council's June meeting.

In a panel discussion at the Nueva Economía Forum in Madrid, Nagel, who heads the Deutsche Bundesbank, said that ‘the best is that we will wait until our June meeting, take a look at what new data is giving us as additional information, and then we will see.’

The ECB was not on an automatic path that would take rates to a predetermined level, he said.

‘I do not know where neutral rate is, so I am open to incoming data and then I will take a decision’, he said.

Despite the recent ‘positive news’ about the easing of trade tensions, Nagel said ‘uncertainty is still here’ and no one could know what might happen in the next few weeks.

By the June meeting the ECB might know ‘a little bit more’ about tariffs and how ‘the tariff discussion might evolve over the next months’, he said.

There was a ‘good probability’ that inflation would go back to its 2% target and ‘this per se is good news’, he said.

Nagel said the Bundesbank had often been perceived as ‘super critical about monetary policy’ but that ‘I hope you realised that I moved a little bit from that corner to the middle of the room.’