Yet Lane is still cautious in his statements. “It’s not yet clear if we’ve peaked or if it’s yet to come.” The statements come on the eve of a possible forthcoming rate hike by the ECB. There are already signals from the ECB that next week’s interest rate hike could be smaller than previous historical interest rate hikes of 75 basis points. The slowdown in interest rate steps is also a consequence of the first signs of recession in the Eurozone.
However, Lane stresses that “further rate hikes are needed”, even though according to him “a lot has already been done”. “Now the starting point is different. We have already raised interest rates by 200 basis points. We have to take into account the extent of what we have already done.’