FRANKFURT (MNI) – Markets have well understood the European
Central Bank’s message, Vice-President Vitor Contancio said Friday.
Asked whether he felt markets had interpreted the ECB’s message
correctly after pushing rate hike expectations back to the start of the
first quarter following the central bank’s monthly press conference on
Thursday, Contancio said:
“If you take the reaction to both meetings of this year the one in
January and the one yesterday — if you take the two together — I am
satisfied.” Contancio declined to confirm that the ECB sees inflation
reaching 1.8% in 2012 as Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny
reportedly suggested yesterday in an interview with an Austrian
newspaper — though the Austrian National Bank, which Nowotny heads,
said today that figure was Nowotny’s and did not represent the ECB’s
forecast.
“We don’t have forecasts that we disclose now. We will have a new
set of projections by then this will be disclosed,” Contancio said. The
ECB is due to release new Staff Forecasts in March.
–Frankfurt bureau; +49-69-720142, jtreeck@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$G$$$,M$EC$$,MFX$$$,MGX$$$]