Quick euro zone wage growth is just normal catch up, ECB’s Lagarde says

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone wages are now catching up after rapid inflation eroded their purchasing power and there is no wage-price spiral underway, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told Finnish broadcaster YLE on Tuesday.

Lagarde said the ECB was monitoring wage growth “very, very closely” because it is a key driver of inflation but the current catch up process was quite normal.

“At this point in time, for the whole of the euro area, we do not see this spiraling of inflation, wages, inflation, wages, which would be very difficult, if we were to witness it,” Lagarde said.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, Editing by William Maclean)