ATHENS (Reuters) -If the European economy weakens further then the European Central Bank might cut interest rates again, policymaker Yannis Stournaras told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Friday, adding that “this is not expected”.
The ECB cut rates for the seventh time in a row on Thursday to prop up a euro zone economy that was struggling even before erratic U.S. economic and trade policies dealt it further blows.
“If the economy weakens more, if inflation falls in the medium-term sustainably below 2% then we might cut, but this is not expected,” said Stournaras.
Most ECB policymakers back keeping interest rates, now at 2%, on hold at their next gathering in July, or possibly longer, depending in part on the prospects for trade with the United States, sources told Reuters.
Stournaras said that the best thing for now is a wait-and-see stance. “We are keeping options open, meeting by meeting, data dependent,” he said.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Alex Richardson and Toby Chopra)
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