Nagel (Bundesbank) expects first ECB rate hike in Q3 | Photo credits: Deutsche Bundesbank
WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) – Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel on Wednesday said he was opposed to a hasty hike in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) but said he expected last to start raising rates in the third quarter.
The number and frequency of rate hikes starting in the third quarter will depend on economic data, he added.
He said it was increasingly unlikely that the ECB would be able to bring inflation back below its 2% target.
For the president of Germany’s national central bank, who was speaking at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington, current economic data suggests that the European Central Bank may soon end to its bond purchases.
He pointed out that the IMF, which has just revised downwards its forecasts for global growth, could be forced to lower them further if inflation, already high, showed no signs of slowing down.
(Report Christian Kraemer, written by Miranda Murray; French version Claude Chendjou, edited by Marc Angrand)