“We are getting closer to the goal” of inflation at 2%, after having “covered a lot of ground and made a lot of progress in this fight against inflation”, said Christine Lagarde, president of the Central Bank, in an interview with Le Figaro on Sunday. European Union (ECB).
“Obviously, monetary policy has started to work to bring inflation down. We see this in the credit figures, both in interest rates – our fellow citizens know this – and in the volumes of credit which are falling, as well as in the demand for credit from companies. We are also starting to see it in the real economy, in real estate or in terms of investment, ”she said.
Regarding speculation around a pause in rate hikes after September, the institution’s president remained vague, saying that “there may be another increase in key rates, or perhaps a pause” .
“A break, whatever the date, in September or later, would not necessarily be definitive,” she warned, however, recalling that this required that “inflation be brought down sustainably. to its target” of 2%.
The rise in prices has certainly slowed in recent months, while the European Central Bank has multiplied rate hikes to slow inflation, but it remains at 5.5% in June over one year in the euro zone.