ECB expects eurozone inflation to keep falling

This photo taken on July 27, 2023 shows the Euro sign in Frankfurt, Germany. (Xinhua/Zhang Fan)

According to the latest ECB staff projections, inflation in the eurozone will hit the bank's target of 2 percent in 2025. The past two months have seen inflation fall sharply from 5.2 percent in August to 4.3 percent in September.

FRANKFURT, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Inflation in the eurozone will continue to fall after it plummeted in October, European Central Bank (ECB) Vice President Luis de Guindos said in an interview published at the bank's website on Thursday.

De Guindos described the evolution of inflation in the eurozone as "positive" as both headline inflation and core inflation have slipped considerably recently.

According to the latest ECB staff projections, inflation in the eurozone will hit the bank's target of 2 percent in 2025. The past two months have seen inflation fall sharply from 5.2 percent in August to 4.3 percent in September.

A woman walks past a store with discount signs in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 31, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said at the end of October that the estimated inflation in that month was 2.9 percent.

De Guindos warned of complacency, insisting that there will be risks around the outlook for inflation over the next few months.

"However, we believe that, if interest rates are maintained at their current levels, inflation will continue to fall and converge towards our target."

The ECB left its key interest rates unchanged in its rate-setting meeting in October after hiking the rates 10 times in a row since July 2022.

De Guindos sticked to the ECB rhetoric about the interest rate decisions, reiterating that the bank will continue to take a meeting-by-meeting and data-dependent approach to interest rate decisions.

Dismissing the idea of an interest rate cut, De Guindos said: "Any discussion about lowering interest rates is clearly premature ... Our approach now is to keep interest rates at this level long enough to reach our target."

A customer shops at a supermarket in Berlin, Germany, on Nov. 8, 2023. (Xinhua/Ren Pengfei)