Rehn Comments Read A Little Hawkishly

ECB Governing Council member Rehn tells Kauppalehti that “inflation has been falling for a long time now, and the outlook for next year and the following year is that inflation in the euro area is close to the 2% target. This makes it possible to start easing the foot off the brake pedal of monetary policy by the end of the summer.”

• Recent ECB comments have pointed to June as the likely timing of the first cut, Rehn doesn't seem to hold as much conviction on that front.
• “The ECB makes decisions in the light of the information available on the euro area economy, and in particular at the moment two issues are being considered as the basis for monetary policy decision-making. The first is the dynamics of core inflation and the second is the transmission of monetary policy to the economy.”
• “The market is currently pricing in such a way that this year's total [interest rate] is down by less than a percentage point. I want to emphasize that this is not the position of the Bank of Finland and there is a lot of uncertainty involved."
• The comments read a little hawkishly, although the piece is light on details.