(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank will need to evaluate faster disinflation and weaker growth at next week’s policy meeting, according to Executive Board member Piero Cipollone.
“We could get a growth that is a little bit slower than what we were thinking,” he told Austrian public broadcaster ORF in an interview conducted Sept. 27. “And also numbers we are seeing, the first numbers from inflation seem to be pointing to the fact that inflation is decelerating faster, faster than we expected.”
“So we will gather all this information, collect it, reflect on it, and take a decision, as we have been saying for, you know, all along, that we will be data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting,” he said. “So we will get all this information and reassess the situation on the next monetary policy meeting.”
The ECB is widely expected to cut interest rates on Oct. 17 after inflation eased below the 2% target for the first time since 2021. At the same time, indicators are pointing to an increasingly dire economy.
“We have seen a deterioration of the PMI, so the signals coming from the real side of the economy are a little bit weak,” Cipollone said according to the transcript provided by the ECB on Monday.
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