By Marta Vilar – SINTRA, Portugal (Econostream) – European Central Bank Vice President Boris Vujčić on Wednesday indicated that preliminary June euro area inflation data were not too far from expectations and that the ECB was not foreclosing on any of its policy options ahead of the July meeting.
On the sidelines of the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Vujčić told CNBC that flash June HICP contained “no big surprises” and that the ECB still needed to wait for the final inflation reading.
Inflation remained elevated in some countries, such as Spain, while weaker inflation in Germany could largely be explained by government measures to lower energy prices, he said.
“We will have to wait for the data to come in until the July meeting, and then in September we have new projections and then we will decide depending on further data that will come in,” he said.
Asked whether the ECB could raise interest rates again in July, Vujčić said policymakers were keeping “all options open” and were not committing to any particular policy path.
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