MNI BRIEF: Lane Says ECB Trying To Be Vague On Rate Target

ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane said Saturday the central bank is being purposefully vague in explaining how far interest rates will have to rise but he sees rate hikes over the next several meetings.

“We’re not trying to be overly precise about where that target level, where this terminal level is because it’s going to move with the data inflow,” he said at a monetary policy panel on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington. “So rather than saying here’s our number and that’s it, we were trying to signal wherever that takes us is what we are going to do.”

“In September, we said we do think we need interest-rate hikes over next several meetings before we get to the level needed for inflation to return to 2% in a timely manner," Lane said. “It’s clear we’ve moved away from a situation where the maximum increment is 25,” he said, but “we still have to work on our optimum speed.” Former senior European Central Bank official Ignazio Angeloni told MNI Eurozone interest rates may go above 4% as inflation stays high for longer than expected.