FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, among the most conservative members of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, will step down from his post on Dec. 31, the German central bank said on Wednesday.
Weidmann, a longstanding critic of the ECB’s easy-credit policy, said he was resigning for personal reasons. But his farewell message still warned about inflationary risks.
“I have come to the conclusion that more than 10 years is a good measure of time to turn over a new leaf – for the Bundesbank, but also for me personally,” the Bundesbank quoted Weidmann as saying.
Weidmann, who was among a handful of policymakers that opposed the ECB’s pledge in July to keep interest rates at record lows until inflation stabilises at 2%, warned it should not lose sight of the risk that prices might rise too fast.
“It will be crucial not to look one-sidedly at deflationary risks, but not to lose sight of prospective inflationary dangers either,” he said in Wednesday’s statement.
The ECB has battled with sluggish price growth for a decade but inflation has risen sharply in recent months and came in at 3.4% in September, data showed on Wednesday.
Weidmann has headed the Bundesbank since May 2011, taking over as the euro zone’s debt crisis raged.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi and Francesco Canepa; Editing by Catherine Evans)
