More than the peak in interest rates likely to be reached this summer, what matters now is to determine “the duration” during which rates will be kept at a high level by the European Central Bank (ECB), estimated Thursday Governor of the Banque de France.
Faced with inflation deemed too high, and with the objective of returning to 2% by 2025, the ECB has raised its interest rates seven times since July 2022 and the start of a monetary tightening campaign without precedent in the euro zone.
ECB interest rates are now in a range between 3.25% and 4%, the highest since October 2008.
Without commenting on the level it will reach, the Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau, estimated that the terminal rate, namely the high point, would be reached “by the summer, which begins in June and ends in September.
But “how long we will hold rates is now more important than the precise terminal rate we will achieve,” he added at a conference organized by the International Capital Markets Association (Icma) in Paris. .
“In other words, it’s about interest rates like in ballistics, longer becomes more significant than upper “, he compared.
Beyond monetary policy, Mr. Villeroy de Galhau pleaded for structural reforms and, like the European Commission, for the lifting of the support measures put in place to deal with soaring energy prices. .
In an interview with the Japanese press on May 10, ECB President Christine Lagarde left the door open for further rate hikes to ease price pressures.