Italy’s Visco accuses ECB colleagues of widening hawk-dove gap | – #Italys #Visco #accuses #ECB #colleagues #widening #hawkdove #gap
ROME, March 8 (Reuters) – Europe Central Bank Executive Board member Ignazio Visco criticized some politicians on Wednesday for commenting on future interest rates that differed from those agreed at ECB meetings.
Visco’s intervention is the sixth time the central bank will raise interest rates at next week’s meeting and high inflation standing ahead in the struggle with way sets the stage for a heated debate about its definition.
Visco, like his Italian counterpart on the ECB’s executive board, Fabio Panetta, is seen as a policy dove unwilling to commit to aggressive rate hikes for fear of damaging the economy.
“Uncertainty is so high that, as a governing board, we have agreed that we will decide to meet without prior instructions,” the Bank of Italy governor said in a speech in Rome, departing from the written text previously circulated.
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“That’s why I don’t appreciate my colleagues’ comments about future and long-term interest rate hikes,” Visco said, in unusually sharp terms that underscored the widening fissures at the Frankfurt-based ECB.
Visco said that the ECB inflation Although it managed to stabilize its expectations, geopolitical uncertainties mean that economic development is difficult to predict.
“Therefore, monetary policy should continue to act cautiously and be based on data as it becomes available.”
The ECB is raising rates at the fastest pace on record, and its chief economist, Philip Lane, said on Monday that it could still go higher after a previously announced 50 basis point hike this month.
Other board members, considered policy hawks who care about reining in inflation even if it hurts growth and employment, have gone further.
On Monday, Austrian Central Bank Governor Robert Holzmann said the ECB should raise rates by 50 basis points at each of its next four meetings as inflation proved stubborn.
That would push the savings rate to 4.5%, well above the 4% peak set by the markets, a level no other policymaker has ever publicly advocated.
Germany’s Bundesbank chief, Joachim Nagel, has called for significant increases after March, and the Netherlands’ Klaas Knot is also key inflation he said he would see a big rate hike in May if it doesn’t fall.
of the ECB April There is no policy meeting in the month.
Added by Stefano Bernabei and Alvise Armellini report; Edited by Alexander Smith
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2023-03-08 17:46:05
Source – reuters
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