FRANKFURT, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) — According to an interview published on the European Central Bank (ECB) website on Thursday, European Central Bank (ECB) Vice President Luis de Guindos stated that inflation in the eurozone will continue to decline following a sharp decrease in October.
De Guindos characterized the recent evolution of inflation in the eurozone as “positive,” noting significant declines in both headline inflation and core inflation.
Based on the latest ECB staff projections, inflation in the eurozone is expected to reach the bank’s target of 2 percent by 2025. In the past two months, inflation has fallen substantially from 5.2 percent in August to 4.3 percent in September.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, reported at the end of October that estimated inflation for that month was 2.9 percent.
De Guindos cautioned against complacency and emphasized that there will be risks related to the outlook for inflation over the next few months.
“However, we believe that, if interest rates are maintained at their current levels, inflation will continue to fall and converge towards our target,” De Guindos added.
In its rate-setting meeting in October, the ECB decided to leave its key interest rates unchanged, following a series of rate hikes for 10 consecutive months since July 2022.
De Guindos adhered to the ECB’s stance on interest rate decisions, reiterating that the bank will continue to take a meeting-by-meeting and data-dependent approach to interest rate adjustments.
Dismissing the prospect of an interest rate cut, De Guindos stated: “Any discussion about lowering interest rates is clearly premature… Our current approach is to maintain interest rates at this level for a sufficiently long time to reach our target,”
