LISBON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s (ECB) interest rate hike, intended to curb high inflation, is now near its peak unless new external shocks emerge, Mario Centeno said on Friday. , member of the Board of Governors of the institution.
Speaking at a conference in Lisbon, Mario Centeno added that interest rates would continue to rise until the ECB believes inflation can be brought back to its medium-term target of 2%.
“We are on the way to achieving it (…) but we cannot hesitate in this process” of controlling inflation, he said.
Inflation in the euro zone decelerated further in December with the continued decline in energy prices, according to the first estimate published Friday by Eurostat, which shows a rise of 9.2% over one year in the index of consumer prices calculated according to European standards (HICP) after +10.1% in November. (Report Sergio Goncalves, written by Andrei Khalip; French version Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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