"I am convinced that there are more meetings ahead of us where we will decide on raising rates and I think we will raise them further," he said in an interview published online. "It's no secret that given the fundamentals I would also be satisfied with a 50 basis point increase in interest rates but a 25 basis point increase is a return to normal," he added. "And that means we may stay with interest rate hikes longer than we originally thought." The ECB has raised rates at each of its past seven meetings to fight a historic surge in consumer prices and policymakers have signalled further hikes to come as inflation pressures continue to build. But the bank slowed the pace of hikes to 25 basis points earlier this month, the smallest increment since tightening started last July, arguing that past measures are still working their way through the economy and overall inflation has past its peak. "Headline inflation in the euro zone sometimes falls and then rises again a bit but the key point is that core inflation is still creeping up," Kazimir said. "And that's proof that we have a problem and that we haven't solved the problem yet." (Reporting by Michael Kahn, Editing by Christina Fincher)
Messaging: michael.kahn.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) PRAGUE, May 14 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank may
need to raise interest rates longer than previously thought to
help tame inflationary pressures, ECB policymaker Peter Kazimir
said on Sunday.
Speaking to Slovak news site HN Online.SK, Kazimir referred
to comments made last week when he said September may be the
earliest point at which policymakers could judge whether past
rate hikes have been effective.
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