(Bloomberg) -- The early-year acceleration in workers’ pay in the euro zone is no cause for concern on inflation, according to European Central Bank Governing Council member Mario Centeno.

The drop in real wages as Russia’s attack on Ukraine sent consumer prices soaring is expected to be reversed in the coming years, the Portuguese central-bank chief said. The pace at which this happens is an open question, he said.

“I don’t read too much into 0.2 points above what we were expecting,” Centeno told Bloomberg on the sidelines of a conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. “This real-wage recovery is compatible with inflation converging to 2%.”

The path for monetary policy is unclear following a first reduction in borrowing costs in less than two weeks. Investors pared bets on interest-rate cuts in the wake of the pay data and a separate release suggesting a recovery in the struggling euro-area economy is taking hold. 

Centeno’s remarks signal he may deem that market repricing to be an overreaction, with the downward trajectory for prices still intact. ECB President Christine Lagarde said this month that inflation is “under control.”

France’s Francois Villeroy de Galhau has already downplayed this week’s wage figures, saying the ECB “should not over-interpret” them, and that officials remain “confident in the disinflationary process.” His Estonian counterpart, Madis Muller, shared a similar view in a separate interview with Bloomberg.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, a hawk, struck a cautious tone Friday, though didn’t rule out the autumn rate move that markets now appear to be wavering over.

“If there’s a rate cut in June, we have to wait, and I believe we have to wait until maybe September,” he said in an interview at a Group of Seven meeting in Stresa, Italy.

Centeno was upbeat on the revival in the 20-nation euro-area economy, saying he and his colleagues nevertheless expect the pullback in consumer-price gains to continue.

“We need to see a continuation of” the growth figures, he said on Friday. “Some recovery of the economy in the euro zone will not jeopardize the disinflation process. The recovery of productivity figures, which were not positive in the last couple of years, will help to secure the disinflation process.”

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.