(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged restraint to avoid a new bout of inflation that would prevent the European Central Bank from lowering interest rates.

“It’s important that we examine whether the fight against inflation has worked and we are heading toward 2% — and that we don’t prevent the ECB, which decides independently, from drawing its consequences for the level of interest rates,” Scholz told citizens in Chemnitz, Germany, late Friday. “That will of course help the economy and investments, but let’s wait and see, so that we don’t end up in another inflationary spiral.”

ECB officials including President Christine Lagarde have all but committed to a first rate cut in June — nine months after raising its key deposit rate to a record 4%. How far and how quickly borrowing costs will drop thereafter is less clear, with oil prices vulnerable to geopolitical tensions in the Mideast and wage pressures still strong.

With inflation in the euro zone on track to reach the ECB’s 2% target by the middle of next year, Scholz argued that “we have now reached that point” at which borrowing costs can be reduced. Recently, German price pressures were lower than in the 20-nation bloc.

“We will have real increases in purchasing power again this year for employees and pensioners,” Scholz said in Saxony, one of three federal states holding parliamentary elections this year.

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