ECB rate hikes over: French central bank chief

PARIS

The European Central Bank's rate-hike campaign is over unless a "surprise" forces it to resume its fight against inflation, the head of France's central bank said on yesterday.

The ECB kept rates unchanged last month after raising them 10 times since July 2022 in an effort to tame consumer prices that soared following the COVID pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We are winning the battle against inflation," said Banque de France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, a member of the ECB's governing council.

"Barring a surprise or a shock, the rise in our key rates is over," he said in a speech, while stressing that it was "too early to talk about cutting" them.

He said inflation should return to the ECB's two-percent target by 2025.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has also paused its rate-hike campaign but has likewise indicated that it will not cut them in the short term.

ECB vice president Luis de Guindos said on the ECB website that maintaining rates at their current level "will substantially contribute to bringing inflation back down to the two percent level we define as price stability."

The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone dropped more than expected in October, reaching 2.9 percent, its lowest level since July 2021.