(Bloomberg) -- Euro-area inflation is now very near to the European Central Bank’s 2% target for consumer-price growth, according to Governing Council member Mario Centeno.
“Inflation today is very close to 2%,” he said at a conference in Spain on Friday. He highlighted that the ECB has an inflation target for the medium term and that any current decisions are for “inflation in two years to be at 2%.”
Consumer-price growth in the 20-member region slowed to 1.8% in September, though it’s expected to tick up again in the coming months and the ECB doesn’t anticipate it to be at target sustainably until the end of 2025. At the same time, economic growth is in a dire state. Those two elements now make another ECB interest-rate cut at the Oct.16-17 policy meeting increasingly likely.
“The topic of growth in Europe is central,” said Centeno, who has previously pushed for more easing. “We started now to see in the labor market, which gave us so much, the first doubts.”
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