By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Mārtiņš Kazāks on Friday said the ECB was well positioned to raise interest rates further if necessary to return inflation to target, while stressing that it was too early to judge the outcome of next month's policy meeting.

Inflation lingering around 3% was at a "somewhat uncomfortable" level, but there were arguments both for and against additional tightening, the Latvijas Banka governor told Bloomberg.

"We are well positioned to move if necessary to push inflation back to 2% in a reasonable period of time," Kazāks said. "We will meet again in September, we will take a look at the data and the outlook, and then we will decide. Given the current situation, there are pros and cons of further hikes."

Kazāks said the euro area economy had proved stronger than anticipated.

"The euro area economies are somewhat more resilient than we had expected earlier," he said, according to the agency. "Second-quarter growth was quite strong, and unemployment remains low."

At the same time, wage growth was easing and longer-term inflation expectations remained consistent with the ECB's objective, he said.

"We see wage growth gradually slowing," Kazāks said. "The good news is that inflation expectations remain anchored around our target, which shows that there is a credibility in the markets that the ECB will do what is necessary."

Kazāks declined to offer guidance on the future path of rates, arguing that the high degree of uncertainty made such signaling inappropriate.

"With uncertainty very high and interest rates above the effective lower bound, giving forward guidance is counterproductive," he said.