The Austrian 'hawk' sees no reason for a pause in ECB rate hikes

MADRID, 28 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Governor of the Austrian National Bank and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), Robert Holzmann, considered one of the main representatives of the most orthodox wing of the institution's monetary policy, has been in favor of continuing to raise the interest rates in the absence of knowing the incoming information.

"If there are no big surprises, I see reasons to go ahead with rate increases without pausing," said the Austrian central banker in an interview with Bloomberg collected by Europa Press.

In this sense, Holzmann recalled that there is still no clarity in the euro area with regard to inflation, stressing the need to carefully monitor all incoming information to assess the risks for prices.

Likewise, for the governor of the Austrian central bank, although the economy is not doing as well as expected, at the same time, "the slowdown is not so gigantic as to talk of falling into a recession." "We are facing a stagnant economy," he specified.

Holzmann's comments come days after ECB President Christine Lagarde warned at a central bankers' meeting in Jackson Hole last Friday that, despite the fact that monetary policy tightening is making progress, " the fight against inflation is not yet won".

In the current environment, for the ECB this means setting interest rates at sufficiently restrictive levels "for as long as necessary" to achieve a timely return of inflation to the medium-term objective of 2%, the French stressed.