By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller said Monday that the ECB had scope not to rush decisions on raising interest rates, given that policy rates were now roughly neutral.

Müller, who heads Eesti Pank, told Äripäev radio’s morning program that the Eurozone economy faced a great deal of uncertainty due largely to the Iran war and related volatility in energy prices.

“Given that today we are at a more or less neutral level with central bank interest rates, this also gives us the opportunity not to rush our decisions and to see what the actual developments will be,” he said.

Müller said it was worth waiting for the future to become clearer before raising rates, according to Äripäev.

The comments were more cautious than Müller’s blog post on Friday, in which he said the ECB had not yet needed to raise rates but that it was increasingly likely it would have to do so later.

In Monday’s interview, Müller also discussed developments that were already holding back inflation, as well as the outlook for economic growth and consumer confidence, according to Äripäev.