(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank will raise borrowing costs again, though interest rates are now close to the level where monetary policy is neither expansionary nor restrictive, Governing Council member Constantinos Herodotou said.

“We are very near the neutral range,” Herodotou told Bloomberg TV’s Maria Tadeo at the Bloomberg Global Regulatory Forum in London on Tuesday. “There will be I think another hike or hikes.”

Speaking later in separate Bloomberg TV interview, Herodotou refused to be drawn on the size of the increase he wants at the Dec. 14-15 meeting — the last one of this year — saying a fresh round of economic forecasts will be key.

“I would rather wait and see what these numbers reveal and then decide on the size of the hike,” he said. “But the things to look for will be whether there has been any move in inflation expectations and whether there are any signs of a wage price spiral.”

Appetite at the ECB to lift rates by 75 basis points for a third straight time appears to be waning, with money markets solidifying bets on a half-point step after data last week showed euro-area inflation slowing from a record high. That would take the deposit rate to 2%.

Despite the likelihood of a smaller increment, however, the cycle of increases is set to push into 2023, with prices still surging at five times the 2% target. Europe must brace for a “protracted period” during which officials focus on restoring price stability, Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot warned last month.

Herodotou, who’s among the Governing Council’s more dovish policy makers and who heads the Cypriot central bank, said there are currently no indications that excessive pay rises could further drive inflation.

“In terms of the wage price spiral, we don’t see such signs for the time being,” he said. “There is some talk of one-off wage increases, but not the type that is recurring and would constitute a spiral. Anecdotal evidence is not there yet.”

--With assistance from Guy Johnson and Alix Steel.

(Updates with Heredotu in Bloomberg TV interview starting in third paragraph.)

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