The hawkish Austrian was the only member of the ECB Council to vote against cutting interest rates, taking advantage of the upward revision in inflation. Robert Holzman believes that the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve must be in agreement.
The inflation rate is still higher than 2% in the euro area, and despite this, the European Central Bank decided to reduce interest rates by 25 basis points. However, the Governor of the Austrian Central Bank, Robert Holzmann, warns that the differences between the Federal Reserve (USA) and the European Central Bank could lead to a rise in this indicator, making the economic situation of citizens more difficult.
According to the Austrian economist, further cuts could have a strong impact on the exchange rate and inflation in the European bloc’s currency. In fact, whoever is considered the “super euro hawk” voted against lowering interest rates, considering that “if decisions are guided by economic data, they should be guided by that data.”
Holzmann, the only member of the ECB Council to vote against lowering interest rates, warned that the path of inflation does not yet point to the introduction of a first interest rate cut, especially after the ECB revised inflation expectations for 2024 and 2025.
“If the original assumption of three interest rate cuts is met [este ano] “The Federal Reserve has not responded, so it will certainly have an impact on the exchange rate, and with it on inflation,” the “super hawk” noted to ORF on Saturday, citing. “Bloomberg”. However, he stressed that he is not yet worried about this first step.
“There was a review of the data and a discussion with different points of view. He explained that the council’s opinion is that there is no other way, especially since it was announced that such a decision would be taken next June.
