ECB's Lagarde: Will take action at the right time to achieve inflation goal

ECB President Christine Lagarde on Monday said that the bank will take action at the right time to achieve its 2.0% inflation goal over the medium term. In the near term, she added, inflation is likely to remain high and bottlenecks will still persist for some time. There are some signs these bottlenecks might be starting to ease, she said, saying that in the medium-term, the ECB views the risks to the economic outlook as broadly balanced. However, in the near term, Lagarde continued, risks to the outlook for inflation are tilted to the upside, although while the near-term outlook is uncertain, inflation is expected to decline over the course of the year. Finally, Lagarde noted that the solid anchoring of long-term inflation expectations in the euro area near the 2.0% level is reassuring.

Market Reaction

Lagarde's latest remarks do not add anything new to what she said last week or the week before in her post-ECB press conference, thus, the euro has not reacted.