LISBON (Reuters) – The cycle of interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank has likely come to an end as inflation across the euro zone is retreating faster then it rose, ECB Governing Council member Mario Centeno said on Wednesday.
“We can expect that the rate cycle has been completed by now, and with present conditions,” he told reporters in Lisbon.
He said the ECB’s September decision “brought the necessary predictability of monetary policy, by explicitly mentioning that the current level of interest rates is compatible with the convergence of inflation in the medium term towards the objective” of 2%.
The ECB has raised rates at each of its past ten meetings but signalled a pause for October, fuelling a debate among policymakers over whether the monetary authority was done hiking rates or if further tightening was on the table.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, edititng by Andrei Khalip and Bernadette Baum)
