Yannis Stournaras is the Governor of the Bank of Greece and thus a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council (monetary policy setting committee).
He spoke in an interview with with the Proto Thema newspaper over the weekend:
- “If inflation develops in line with our March forecast and if this trend continues until the end of the year, I believe that this year we will have reductions in key interest rates from the ECB”
- “Personally I think the reduction of interest rates by four times this year, by 25 basis points each time, is possible”
He said his view was not shared by all policy setters at the ECB:
- “This is not yet a unified view. Some colleagues are more cautious and believe that interest rate cuts should be more moderate.”
But:
- “The differences of opinion within the governing council of the ECB are much smaller than the image in the media”
ECB's Stournaras