Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Governing Council member of the European Central Bank.
“We’re on a good way to defeat inflation and this is actually good news,” he told France Inter radio on Saturday. “There may be some temporary rebounds in coming months, but that’s a technical effect. Baring large external shocks, we’ll be a 2% of inflation next year, probably rather toward the beginning of next year.”
The ECB’s most recent forecast — from September — predicted 2% would only be reached in the final quarter of next year, though officials familiar with the Governing Council’s thinking told Bloomberg this week that officials now expect that to happen in the first or second quarter.
The central bank has already lowered borrowing costs three times this year, and markets are betting on a spate of cuts at the next few meetings — starting in December, when some investors reckon a larger half-point move may be in play.
“There will probably be other rate cuts,” Villeroy said. “But we will decide depending on data. I’m calling for agile pragmatism: Agile because we must move and cut rates when we can. Pragmatism, because we must look at the data and not lose sight of the forest for the trees.”
