By Hans Bentzien
FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)–According to the ECB President, the Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) is in control Christine Lagarde There is broad agreement on the assessment that the committee will probably be able to assess the inflation outlook at its meeting after next much better than at the next meeting. Lagarde said in the press conference after the ECB Governing Council meeting that the ECB’s confidence that it could achieve its inflation target of 2 percent on time had increased.
“We are more confident, but not confident enough, we need more evidence and more data,” she said, adding: “We will know a little more in April and a lot more in June.” There was broad agreement on this in the Council. However, there was just as broad agreement that the Council would not change its views based on a single number.
As expected, the Council had previously decided to leave key interest rates and securities purchase programs as well as the forward guidance relating to them unchanged. The ECB’s economic staff lowered its growth forecasts for 2024 to 0.6 (previously: 0.8) percent. The current forecasts for 2025 and 2026 were given as 1.5 (1.5) and 1.6 (1.5) percent.
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DJG/hab/apo
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 07, 2024 09:22 ET (14:22 GMT)