ECB’s Escrivá: Current ECB Rate Level “Appropriate” as Inflation at Target

26 October 2025

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member José Luis Escrivá said in an interview published Sunday that with euro area inflation now at 2%, the current ECB interest rate level was appropriate.

Escrivá, who heads the Banco de España, told Spanish news portal elDiario.es that “once inflation is really at the target, which is 2%, it seems to us the right moment to look ahead and to think that the current level of interest rates is appropriate.”

Price stability was the ECB’s “first concern,” he said, adding that the main contribution of central banks was to ensure that the value of money and citizens’ purchasing power were maintained.

He praised ECB President Christine Lagarde’s role in fostering transparent debate within the Governing Council and said the information flow to members had improved compared with the early years of Monetary Union.

Asked whether he saw himself as a hawk or a dove, he dismissed the classification as misleading, noting that policymakers’ views changed with evolving circumstances. “The economy is not an exact science,” he said. “We change our opinions as we assess, in different ways or with nuances, the elements that should lead us to form our judgment.”

Escrivá also said the euro area’s modest growth outlook remained consistent with policy stability, arguing that Spain’s strong post-pandemic performance owed to structural advantages such as digitalisation, renewable energy, and immigration policy. The gap between Spain’s growth and that of its euro area peers was at unprecedented levels, he noted.

He reiterated that the ECB must remain agile and adapt to the economic environment but gave no indication that a rate move was imminent.