LISBON (Reuters) -European Central Bank policymaker Mario Centeno said on Friday he expects inflation to fall to its medium-term target of 2% in a sustainable manner since euro zone inflation is “almost out of the woods”.
Speaking at a conference in Lisbon, Centeno said the euro zone was on its way to normalizing monetary policy.
“We are in process of reaching that target in the medium term in a stable way,” he said.
Making its sixth cut since June, the ECB on Thursday lowered the deposit rate to 2.5% in a nod to slowing inflation and faltering activity, and said monetary policy was becoming less restrictive of economic growth as inflation falls towards its target.
Centeno said ECB policy had brought inflation in the euro zone down from its peak of 10.6% in October 2022 to “a level that is very much closer to our target”.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Charlie Devereux)
