ECB’s Stournaras: 2% inflation target to come in early 2025

The European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday that the Eurozone is on the cusp of sustainably reaching 2% inflation, putting the onus on officials to avoid undershooting that goal, per Bloomberg. 

Key quotes

“Inflation is now more likely to converge sustainably to the target sooner than earlier expectations — by the beginning of 2025 instead of the last quarter, as was anticipated in the most recent ECB projections.”

“Our policy focus may have to increasingly take account of economic conditions so that we don’t undershoot our inflation objective.”

“Although we have not had any indications of a hard landing, the markets are extremely sensitive to disappointing growth readings.” 

“If negative surprises for growth come in and we fail to unwind our restrictive monetary-policy stance at the appropriate pace, unnecessary market turbulence could be induced, negatively impacting economic and financial stability.”

“The September reading of inflation at 1.7 percent should be viewed as both a success and a wake-up call.”

“A policy-rate path that remains too restrictive for too long could induce an undershooting of our inflation target over the medium term and impede growth. Should that occur, we would risk damaging our credibility.”

“An escalation in trade tensions between major economies through tariffs and retaliation could create chaos in international trade and weigh on confidence and economic activity at the global level.” 

Market reaction 

At the time of writing, EUR/USD is trading 0.04% higher on the day to trade at 1.0545.