ECB: Further Currency Shifts May Strengthen Euro’s Global Role

Lombardelli on what was the progress on disinflation and whether it would have been enough for a cut without the trade uncertainties: "coming into the May round... are we still continuing to see this progress [on disinflation]? We did see some data that continues to support the disinflation argument. But you know, you sort of have to keep your eye on this. You have to be aware of and... focused on inflation. We have had inflation above target for a long period, and that is something that we we would like to see... come down and see these pressure. These pressures are there in the economy. You can see them in wages. You can see them in services prices. So it is something that we're sort of still focused on, the trade. Obviously, the trade, as I say, sort of at the margin, supported that same direction of travel, right? Which... we expect that to reduce inflationary pressure looking forward. So they moved in the in the same direction, which made the judgement in May a bit easier in, in that sense. But... how confident are we are in [disinflation]... that's the key question going forward, right? Is what we will we continue to see this progress. You know, we hope so. We've seen it so far, but we'll continue to monitor it."

"Spend a lot of time, as you expect, looking at, talking about inflation expectations... I wouldn't have said that was a sort of dominating effect on keeping policy restrictive at the moment. You know, we watch it, we think about it, but as I say, it's just one of the many things that feeds in. It's not like I say it's not, it's not the reason that we've we're keeping policy restrictive at the moment. That's much more about. What are we seeing on the wages data, the services, inflation, the broader picture on on dis inflation there. So it's, you know, one factor, not the dominating factor, and sorry, I forgotten the final question."

"At the moment, wages are not target consistent. They're well above that. We are expecting them to come down. As you say, what I think we would need to see, it's not waiting until AWE is target consistent... I think seeing the pay settlements that we will get quite a lot of data on this year, if those continue to be consistent with what we're we're seeing I think that will provide quite a lot of reassurance that we can continue on this gradual path."