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The
ECB put a June rate cut on the table last week and has spent the
past week reinforcing that guidance, despite rising oil prices,
a weaker euro and bets that its biggest peer, the U.S. Federal
Reserve, would delay its own rate cuts.
"I think that we have been crystal clear: if things continue as
they have been evolving lately, in June we'll be ready to reduce
the restriction of our monetary policy stance," de Guindos told
a parliamentary hearing in Brussels.
De Guindos repeated the ECB's most recent guidance, that
inflation, at 2.4% in March, would hover near its current level
over the coming months but would ease back to the ECB's 2%
target next year.
Markets currently see 75 basis points of cuts in the central
bank's 4% deposit rate this year, or two full moves beyond June,
but de Guindos declined to be drawn on where rates are likely to
go, even if some policymakers have already floated the idea of a
second move in July.
"I would say that there are some risks," de Guindos said. "The
evolution of wages, productivity, unit labor cost, profit
margins, and geopolitical risks are very difficult to take into
consideration and to bear in mind when we elaborate our
positions."
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Alex Richardson and
Christina Fincher)
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