(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank can ease monetary policy further so long as inflation continues to moderate, according to Governing Council member Mario Centeno.

“The cycle of interest rates will continue to evolve,” the Portuguese official told lawmakers Wednesday in Lisbon. “Rates will fall if inflation helps us, which it’s doing.”

The ECB, though, is in no rush to follow up this month’s reduction in borrowing costs with another, concerned that rapid wage growth may delay inflation’s return to its 2% target. A second cut isn’t expected until at least September, when a new batch of quarterly economic projections will be ready.

Vice President Luis de Guindos has suggested that meetings featuring such forecasts will be key for rate decisions. Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot has said future moves shouldn’t be preempted and should hinge on incoming data.

Looking further ahead, Centeno said there’ll be no return of the ultra-loose policy that persisted for years before inflation spiked.

“Rates won’t return to zero, ideally,” he said. “It would be a very bad sign if that were to happen. What would be ideal would be for interest rates to also approach 2%. That should be — with fluctuations around those numbers — the economic and financial framework that would bring greater stability for the European and Portuguese economy in the future.”

(Updates with more from Centeno in last two paragraphs.)

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