MNI BRIEF: ECB July Rate Hike 'Possible' - De Guindos

The European Central Bank will end asset purchases in the third quarter and that could just as easily be early July as late September, Vice President Luis de Guindos said in an interview with Bloomberg published Thursday. opening the possibility of a first rate hike in the eurozone since 2012 as early as the July 22 meeting.

"We were clear that we are going to end the APP in the third quarter of this year. Whether it happens at the start or the end is essentially fine-tuning monetary policy... Having said that, at the moment I see no reason why we should not discontinue our APP programme in July," he said.

De Guindos didn't commit on a timeline for hikes, but said once APP ended, the first hike could, theoretically, come quickly. "We need to keep in mind that we have now clearly delinked the end of the APP to the first rate hike, so a rate hike doesn’t need to come automatically once the APP ends." Although still data dependent, from a current perspective, "July is possible and September, or later, is also possible," he said.