Statement on inflation and interest rates from the ECB’s chief economist

European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist Philip Lane said they would have to wait until next year for fundamental data that would help see whether inflation had firmly returned to its 2 percent target.

“We’re going to learn a lot this fall, but we’re not going to learn everything,” Lane said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Friday.

“There will be a lot of issues that will remain outstanding until the new year in terms of understanding the data that we need to see to move towards the inflation target,” Lane said, also stating that the ECB is more open to an increase in interest rates and stated : “If future data shows that more increases are needed, of course we will do more.”

WHAT HAPPENED?

Last week, the ECB increased the deposit rate by 25 basis points to 4 percent. Thus, the bank increased interest rates for the tenth consecutive time.

While some economists expect the ECB to start cutting interest rates from June next year, there are also expectations that the bank will not change interest rates for longer.

This week, French Central Bank President Francois de Villeroy gave the message that borrowing costs could remain at 4 percent for a long enough time.