(Bloomberg) — The euro-zone economy is weaker than expected and the European Central Bank must assess the knock-on effect for consumer prices at its meeting next week, Executive Board member Frank Elderson told Slovenia’s Delo newspaper.
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“A number of recent indicators suggest that the risks of lower economic growth are already materializing,” he said in an interview published Tuesday. “So we’ll have to carefully assess whether this has any implications for our inflation forecasts.”
Elderson, who rarely comments publicly on monetary policy, said officials are coming “with an open mind” to the Oct. 16-17 meeting, and that he’s looking forward to “a very genuine and open discussion.”
The ECB is widely expected to lower borrowing costs for a third time this year at the meeting in Slovenia. Policymakers have become more worried about softer-than-expected economic data — in particular, the risk of a sudden deterioration in the labor market.
At the same time, price growth is slowing more quickly than envisaged. In September, it eased below the 2% goal for the first time since 2021.
President Christine Lagarde dropped a rate-cut hint last week amid growing confidence in reaching the target in a timely manner. On Monday, France’s Francois Villeroy de Galhau said officials will “quite probably” decide on such a move next week.
“We will be familiar with all the data and analysis before the meeting, and as we have said many times, we make decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis,” Elderson said.
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