ECB President Reinforces Commitment to Bring Eurozone Inflation to Target

The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, reinforced, this Friday (9), the monetary authority’s commitment to contain inflation in the euro zone and defined price stability as a top priority.

“This is our primary mandate, our task, and we are not going to run away from it,” he assured, at a press conference after the Eurogroup meeting, which brings together European Union (EU) finance ministers.

Christine Lagarde stressed that escalating inflation is a “major concern”, but that the ECB is “determined” to bring the inflation rate back to the 2% target.

According to her, the institution intends to fight the effects of the current energy shock with the same “determination” with which it dealt with the pandemic.

“We can and will act decisively to ensure that the high prices we see today do not take root, that inflation expectations do not become unmoored and that we will exit the monetary policy configuration that is still in place”, he pointed out.

Christine Lagarde argued that government measures in support of the energy sector should be targeted.

According to her, the ECB is prepared to provide liquidity to banks, but not to companies in the energy sector.

Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe reiterated the need to act to reduce inflation.

“We know there are challenges, but we have strong economic fundamentals,” he said, adding that finance ministers will coordinate the response to rising prices with the ECB.