FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank will most likely decide to end its bond buying program in July and raise rates in the crowd, ECB Governing Council member Pablo Hernndez de Cos said on Saturday. .
The ECB has begun to reduce its exceptional support for the economy, but the record level of the consumer price index and the rise in long-term inflation expectations are prompting more and more members of the ECB to advocate a longer unconventional instruments of monetary policy.
The level of inflation is the main justification for rate hikes, with recent surveys suggesting that inflation expectations are “less and less” anchored around the ECB’s 2% target.
Rate hikes could also support the euro against the dollar, the weakness of the single currency favors imported inflation.
(Francesco Canepa; French version Nicolas Delame)