‘The process of raising rates should be gradual’, ECB member says

(Boursier.com) — Pablo Hernandez de Cos is calming things down. “The process of increasing interest rates should be gradual,” said the governor of the Bank of Spain. In an interview granted to ‘Expansion’, the member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, adds: “the objective is to avoid sudden movements, which could be particularly damaging in a context of great uncertainty such as that that we currently know”. “We don’t have a pre-determined normalization guideline”, all decisions will depend on the data.

“The consensus macroeconomic projections anticipate that inflation will remain elevated in the coming months, but that thereafter, barring further inflationary disturbances, it will gradually slow to levels consistent” with the 2% target of the ECB. An end to net asset purchases “should take place at the beginning of the quarter, to proceed, shortly after, to the first increase in interest rates”, specifies the leader.