Robert Holzmann, a member of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the governor of the Austrian central bank said on Wednesday that there is plenty of space for further interest rate hikes following the ECB’s planned July and September raises, CNBC reported.
“We will have to make an assessment where the economic development is going and where inflation stands and afterwards there’s ample room to hike in 0.25 and 0.5 levels to whatever rate we think, we consider reasonable,” Holzmann told the publication.
Markets are focusing on the ECB as it prepares for a very important meeting next month which will see interest rates hiked for the first time in 11 years. While a hike in September was already confirmed, there are doubts whether anything will be done afterwards.
The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta Mester, noted on Wednesday that if economic conditions do not change by the time the Fed meets to decide its next monetary policy move in July, she will be in support of a 75-basis point hike.
“If conditions were exactly the way they were today going into that meeting — if the meeting were today — I would be advocating for 75 because I haven’t seen the kind of numbers on the inflation side that I need to see in order to think that we can go back to a 50 increase,” Mester told the CNBC.
The chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, is due to give a speech at the European Central Bank’s forum later on Wednesday. Powell will also be joined by the ECB’s president Christine Lagarde as well as the Bank of England’s governor Andrew Bailey.
European markets opened lower on Wednesday morning as global sentiment continued to remain volatile and in the aftermath of a volatile trading day in the US. The DAX was 0.91% lower in early trade on Wednesday, the CAC 40 lost 0.78% and the FTSE 100 slid by 0.21%.
Overall outlook seemed positive as Germany reported lower inflation rates in June as the government imposed measures to cut fuel prices and rail tickets. Germany’s largest state by population, North Rhine-Westphalia, said consumer prices fell by 0.1% on the month in June bringing the annual rate of inflation down to 7.5% from the previous 8.1%.
This is the first decline in the annual rate since January. In other European countries, the situation was not as encouraging. Inflation data in Spain showed price increases accelerating to 1.8% and bringing annual inflation to a new 30-year high of 10%.
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