ECB’s Nagel: We Are at ‘Neutral Territory’ and ‘On the Right Track’
19 June 2025
By Marta Vilar – MILAN (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council Joachim Nagel said on Thursday that euro area interest rates were now at neutral levels and that the ECB was ‘on the right track’.
In a panel discussion at the Young Factor International Conference in Milan, Nagel, who heads the Deutsche Bundesbank, said that ‘this year we are coming close to our 2% target’.
However, Nagel acknowledged that there were areas in which he already felt that it was ‘more or less mission accomplished.’
‘We are now in a neutral territory of monetary policy, 2% is our deposit rate’, he said. ‘So, I believe that we are on the right track when it comes to monetary policy.’
Nagel said he believed the US administration was learning the lesson on tariffs, which he described as ‘bad economic policy’.
Regarding negotiations between the EU and the US, Nagel said he hoped that Europe would wind up convincing the Trump administration about tariffs.
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