FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Economic growth in the euro zone is more sluggish than the European Central Bank expected but the goal is to control inflation, so interest rates could still go higher, if needed, ECB board member Frank Elderson said.
“Does that mean policy rates have peaked? Not necessarily,” Elderson told Market News International in an interview published on Wednesday.
“What we’re seeing is a more protracted period of sluggish growth than we were expecting,” Elderson, who rarely speaks about monetary policy said. “It’s also true that our primary mandate is to deliver price stability, and I think we have proven we are very determined to do that.”
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Toby Chopra)