Lagarde promises to lower inflation, but warns that rates cannot lower energy prices

MADRID, 8 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has stressed that the organization's commitment is to lower the current high inflation rates and return to the 2% target, but has recalled that monetary policy cannot act on the prices of energy.

"I cannot reduce the price of energy, I cannot convince a major world player [referring to Russia] to reduce the price of gas, I cannot reform the electricity market", the central banker stressed during her speech at the press conference after the organization's monetary policy meeting.

In this sense, Lagarde has been satisfied that the European Commission is "considering taking steps" in this direction. In this way, she has indicated that monetary decisions can act on consumption and lower inflation, but that if the predominant causes of prices continue to rise, "it is a job for someone else."

The Frenchwoman has recalled throughout her speech that the ECB is operating under a logic of going from meeting to meeting, for which reason it has not given any future guidance beyond the fact that it is concentrating the increases at the beginning of the normalization path ('frontloading' ).

The entity's Governing Council decided this Thursday to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, so that the interest rate for its refinancing operations will be 1.25%, while the deposit rate will reach 0.75% and the loan facility, 1.50%.

This is the first time in the entire history of the ECB that such a large rise in the price of money has been undertaken. The last time a similar increase was applied was in 1999, as part of the transition process towards the adoption of the euro.