The ECB “should” end its net debt purchase program as early as July. This was stated by the vice president of the central bank, thus paving the way for an increase in interest rates, kept at historically low levels despite inflation. The net purchase of assets, the main monetary support tool for the economy, “should end in July,” said Luis de Guindos in an interview with Bloomberg news agency. The ECB has officially set the end of the purchase of new bonds on the markets for the third quarter of 2022. July is therefore the earliest possible deadline.
The Frankfurt institute is under pressure on the interest rate hike, above all because the tightening has already been initiated by the other major central banks in the world, in an attempt to stem the surge in prices accentuated by the war in Ukraine. In the Eurozone, inflation hit a record 7.4% in March, well above the ECB’s medium-term target of 2%. The timing of the first rate hike will depend on the projections to be published at the next ECB meeting on June 9, de Guindos said.
“From the current perspective, July is possible and September as well, or it is possible later,” said de Guindos, considered one of the board members most in favor of accommodative monetary policy.