ECB’s Stournaras: If Economy Weakens Further and Inflation Undershoots, May Cut Rates Further

17 June 2025

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Tuesday suggested that his previous assurances that 2% would be the ECB‘s terminal rate were subject to change.

In an interview with Greek broadcaster ERT, Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, said that ‘[i]f the European economy weakens further, if inflation decreases further, below the target – something we don’t want – then we may proceed to further rate cuts, but we are data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting.’

With both interest rates and inflation at 2%, the ECB’s real rate was zero, he said.

‘We are at a first point of equilibrium’, he said. ‘We don’t know whether this equilibrium will be maintained.’

The uncertainty was so high that one could not say ahead of time if the ECB had already finished easing or not, according to Stournaras, who had repeatedly stated ahead of time that June‘s decision would mean the ECB was finished easing.

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