ECB To Raise Rates Until Inflation Tamed

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned that inflation is holding its grip on the economy and underlined that the bank intends to raise rates high enough to “break this persistence," David McHugh reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Lagarde acknowledged that inflation has fallen from all-time highs last year as energy prices plunged and the bank rolled out a rapid series of rate increases.

Lagarde acknowledged that inflation has fallen from all-time highs last year as energy prices plunged and the bank rolled out a rapid series of rate increases, which are meant to fight price spikes by making it more expensive for consumers and businesses to borrow and spend.

“We are seeing a decline in the inflation rate as the shocks that originally drove up inflation wane and our monetary policy actions are transmitted to the economy,” she said in a speech opening the ECB’s annual policy conference in Sintra, Portugal.

“But the pass-through of those shocks is still ongoing, making the decline in inflation slower and the inflation process more persistent,” Lagarde added.

The inflation rate in the 20-nation Eurozone is 6.1% in May, down from a peak of 10.6% in October 2022. Businesses initially passed on their rising costs by charging customers higher prices, a phase that is starting to wane.

Now, with unemployment at record lows, workers are demanding higher wages to make up for lost purchasing power — threatening to keep pushing up inflation in a wage-price spiral that the bank must prevent.

Workers, Lagarde said, “have so far lost out from the inflation shock, seeing large real wage declines, which is triggering a sustained wage catch-up process as they try to recover their losses. This is pushing up other measures of underlying inflation.”

She said the ECB needs “to address this dynamic decisively" by raising rates as far as needed. The bank would discourage “expectations of a too-rapid policy reversal" and keep rates high for as long as needed, Lagarde said.

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