(Bloomberg) -- The euro zone’s underlying consumer price growth is proving stubborn, according to European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel.

Speaking at the International Economic Forum of the Americas, the Bundesbank president reiterated that he and his colleagues won’t simply lower borrowing costs automatically, but rather judge conditions at each meeting as it comes. 

“It’s true that core inflation is still very sticky,” Nagel said Wednesday in Montreal, Canada, while acknowledging that it was right to ease policy last week. “We are on a bumpy road, but we all know that the last mile is the most complicated one.”

The ECB delivered a widely telegraphed interest-rate cut on Thursday — lowering its deposit rate by 25 basis points after keeping it at a record 4% for nine months. In simultaneously lifting its inflation projections for 2024 and 2025, however, it sparked a debate about whether the reduction was justified and left investors querying where monetary policy is headed next.

“We shouldn’t be too over-confident, too over-optimistic,” Nagel said. “We are not on an autopilot” and “the best way to deal with this is a meeting to meeting approach,” he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Vice President Luis de Guindos said the ECB can’t pre-commit to any decisions this year as it is faces volatile inflation and an economy whose outlook is difficult to predict. Latvia’s Martins Kazaks said additional rate cuts are possible this year, but urged caution as inflation “can sometimes come back.”

“In this very uncertain world, we have to be very cautious, not showing any complacency in our mandate to fight against inflation,” Nagel said. “The job is not done.”

He spoke shortly after the Federal Reserve kept its rate on hold while penciling in just one cut this year and forecasting more reductions for 2025 — reinforcing policymakers’ calls to keep borrowing costs high for longer.

Questioned on the bearing of US policy on that of the euro zone, Nagel insisted that the ECB does “monetary policy for the eurosystem” but did acknowledge spillovers and an indirect “feedback loop.”

“Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic have to be even more stubborn than the inflation,” he said. “This is a similarity that I see.”

--With assistance from Mark Mann and Stephanie Hughes.

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