After several other members of the ECB Council, the new President of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, has now spoken on the subject of interest rate hikes.
Jens Weidmann's successor told the newspaper "Die Zeit" that key interest rates in the euro area could also rise this year.
Inflation is hitting many people hard and is driving him as Bundesbank President, Nagel asserted.
There are indications that energy price increases may last longer, that they are affecting the prices of other goods and services and that rising demand is also behind it.
"The ECB is now called upon," said Nagel.
The central bank's new projections for growth and inflation are due in March.
"We will decide on this basis." If the inflation picture and, above all, the view to the future do not improve significantly
Christian Siedenbiedel
Editor in Business.
Follow I follow
Nagel did not want to say that the ECB had failed in its main task of ensuring stable prices.
However, the central bank is now facing a “new and different test than in the low-inflation environment”.
Nagel did not want to comment on the question of whether he had already advocated higher interest rates at the last ECB Council meeting, his first.
He was "kindly received" and of course inflation was discussed, he reported.
After the council meeting, it became known that a minority of council members had already called for the central bank to act more quickly.
Nagel quotes ECB President Christine Lagarde: "There was a broad discussion about the inflation risks and, as a result, the consensus to review our monetary policy course in March."
Nagel said he himself clearly sees the risks of waiting too long to normalize monetary policy.
If the picture does not change by March, he will advocate normalizing monetary policy: "The first step is to end net bond purchases during 2022 - then interest rates could rise later this year."