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“A rate hike (in the euro area) could take place as early as July”. This is what Martins Kazaks, governor of the central bank of Latvia and member of the Governing Council of the ECB led by Christine Lagarde said:
“The ECB does not need to wait for stronger wage growth,” Kazaks said, adding that “the end of the App at the beginning of the third quarter is possible and appropriate”.
A gradual approach, underlined the central banker referring to the process of normalization of monetary policy, “does not mean that the response must be slow”. And zero per cent, he further specified, is not the maximum ceiling for the deposit rate (currently negative at -0.50%).