A conference with President Lagarde has just begun. The banker communicated that the coming months could bring slightly higher readings of underlying inflation, and reiterated that if external factors threaten the inflation-fighting process, the ECB could act further. On the other hand, however, the current level of tightening gives room for the ECB to be in a more observant mode and quietly decide on next steps.
Selected comments from Lagarde:
- We have made those future decisions conditional on the incoming data meaning that we can act if we see rising risks of missing are inflation target.
- We expect headline inflation to rise again slightly in the coming months.
- Our monetary policy is in a phase where we need to be attentive to the different forces affecting inflation, but always firmly focused on our mandate.
- We will need to remain attentive until we have firm evidence that the conditions are in place for inflation to return sustainably to our goal.
- Given the scale of our policy adjustment, we can now allow some time for them to unfold.

The EURUSD pair retreats during today's session into the 1,092 zone. Source: xStation
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