European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker Robert Holzmann heads the Austrian National Bank. He spoke in an interview in Vienna, with remarks on the ECB policy path ahead.
- another +50bp rate hike is “still on the cards” if the situation surrounding the global banking system doesn’t worsen
- acknowledged that the bank failures could have a comparable effect to interest-rates hikes by curbing credit growth
- also added that Sunday’s OPEC+ announcement of a surprise output cut isn’t likely to have a major impact on the path ahead
- “For the time being a little bit of optimism has returned, but there’s still some kind of uncertainty,”
- “If things in May haven’t really become more terrible, I think we can afford another 50 basis points, and in particular, if no social agreement emerges to temper inflation we’ll have to do more to produce it.”
The next ECB policy meeting is May 4:
