Frankfurt, Mar. 22, (dpa/GNA) – The European Central Bank (ECB) has not yet reached the end of its interest rate hikes, according to the head of the German central bank Joachim Nagel.
The ECB’s anti-inflationary action still has some way to go, Germany’s top banker told the British business paper Financial Times in an interview published on Wednesday.
At the same time, Nagel admitted that interest rates were approaching the restrictive range, a level above which they slow down economic activity.
Nagel stressed that the ECB would have to resist calls for early rate cuts once the peak had been reached. Otherwise, he said, high inflation threatens to flare up again.
“Our fight against inflation is not over,” said the Bundesbank chief, who sits on the ECB’s monetary policy council.
The ECB again raised its key interest rates by 0.5 percentage points last week.
In response to the recent turbulence in the banking sector, however, it has been more open about its future course than before.
GNA