(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank Governing Council member Mario Centeno said a larger reduction in interest rates is a possibility at the next policy meeting, though data will determine the outcome.
“We need to look at the incoming data — the trends in the data that we have been observing — and certainly 50 basis points can be on the table,” he told CNBC Wednesday. “We continue to be data dependent and the data we are getting points in that direction.”
“The print of inflation in September was very low — way lower than what we were expecting,” the Portuguese official added. “This was true for headline but also for core. So we have converged. Inflation is as close to 2% in the medium term as it can be.”
Centeno also said:
- “It looks like the last mile is not going to be from above 2% but from below 2% because we are now with the inflation below 2%. That level will persist in 2025. We may have a pickup of inflation in the next few months, but that’s because of base effects”
- “Right now, the forecast is based on a recovery that is fed by consumption. But for consumption to be the true part of the story, we need some real income growth and we are not having that either. So we need to be very careful about getting the soft-landing story right”
- READ MORE: ECB Would Mull Bigger Cuts If Backed by Data, Centeno Says
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