Now is not the right time to stop rate hikes- ECB

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) chief economist said on Tuesday that it is the not right time to end interest rate hikes, despite easing inflation in the Eurozone.

The ECB has increased rates by 3.5 percent since July, as part of a monetary tightening campaign to curb consumer prices, which hiked by 6.9 percent on an annual basis.

“Current data are indicating that we should raise rates again, this is still not the right time to stop,” said chief economist, Philip Lane.

“I would say it’s clear that further rate hikes are needed, but the size of the rate hikes is going to depend on the incoming data, depending on the data, a hike of as much as 50 basis points was not off the table,” said ECB board member, Isabel Schnabel on Tuesday.