PARIS (Reuters) – The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, estimated on Thursday that there was “still a little way to go” on the tightening of monetary policy in the face of “too high” inflation. relative to the target.
“Our monetary policy must obviously deploy all its tools to bring inflation back to the 2% target in the medium term,” she said during a speech at the Ecole polytechnique in Paris.
“It’s an exercise that is in progress. We have already deployed a significant part, there is still a little way to go,” she added.
“The length of this path will obviously depend on a number of factors and in particular on the impact that the financial troubles that we have experienced will have on credit and the availability of credit”, continued Christine Lagarde, referring to the crisis that shook the banking sector in March after the collapse of two American regional banks and the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.
Asked about a possible change in the ECB’s inflation target, the president of the central bank ruled out any change in the immediate future.
“Now is not the time. And the question absolutely does not arise. We are riveted on the medium-term objective of 2%, we will achieve it and we will maintain it,” she said.
“That’s not the debate today. I think it would be completely useless and inefficient to have it now. We will first hit the target, we will be sure we have hit it, then we will be able to explore a whole host of questions”, insisted the President of the ECB.
(Written by Blandine Hénault, edited by Laetitia Volga and Tangi Salaün)
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