At least the impression is a bit unfortunate.

While central bankers from all over the world are conferring in Jackson Hole, America, on how to get the extraordinarily high inflation under control, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, of all people, is not there.

She is represented by Board member Isabel Schnabel, who is scheduled to speak there on Saturday.

Instead, an interview with Lagarde appears in the French magazine "Madame Figaro", in which Lagarde deals in detail with various topics beyond current monetary policy - including her holiday reading "Ulysses" by James Joyce.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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The hut is also burning in Frankfurt.

Inflation in the euro zone was 8.9 percent most recently, and more than 20 percent in some euro countries.

Contrary to previous announcements, the central bank raised the key interest rate by 0.5 instead of 0.25 percent in July;

without anyone believing that this is enough.

The next Thursday, September 8th, is the next meeting of the Governing Council of the ECB.

And there are more and more voices saying that a significant increase in key interest rates is urgently needed.

Even ECB Executive Board member Schnabel said in a speech that the inflation outlook had not improved since the previous ECB Governing Council meeting.

Commerzbank considers interest rates of 4 percent to be good

However, while the ECB would consider an interest rate hike of 0.5 percentage points to be a “big step” and one of 0.25 percentage points to be a “small step”, some economists believe that even more is necessary.

Jörg Kramer, the chief economist at Commerzbank, has pushed ahead with the view that 4 percent interest rates would be appropriate to fight inflation.

In his estimation, the central banks should actually raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage points in September;

even if he doesn't think it will happen.

Frederic Ducrozet, economist at the Swiss bank Pictet, also believes that given the inflation outlook, a stronger rate hike would be "probably justified".

Karsten Junius from the Swiss bank Sarasin made a similar statement:

Among others, macroeconomist Ricardo Reis, who teaches at the London School of Economics, argues that the shocks of the past two years were misjudged by central bankers: while central banks believed them to be temporary, they turned out to be more long-term.

They should have been fought earlier by the central banks with higher interest rates.

In her most recent interview, Lagarde found somewhat thoughtful words about the previous central bank line and said: "We can no longer solely rely on the forecasts of our models." The minutes of the July meeting of the ECB Council published on Thursday also show that that even the lower exchange rate of the euro against the dollar does not leave the central bankers cold.

No “ban on thinking” in the Governing Council

With a view to the September meeting and a possible higher interest rate hike, however, voices from the ECB Council have so far been rather quiet.

At least not much has been heard of controversy so far.

An interest rate hike of 0.5 percentage points is expected, say the analysts at the American investment bank Morgan Stanley.

However, voices can also be heard from the Governing Council that there should at least be no “ban on thinking” in relation to an interest rate hike of 0.75 percentage points.

Corresponding speculation was already moving the markets on Friday.

Last time, in July, at the first interest rate hike in the euro area in eleven years, it was said to have been ECB chief economist Philip Lane who suggested at the beginning of the meeting that interest rates be raised by 0.5 instead of 0.25 percent.

However, it is said that the German Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel also supported the proposal in an early speech.

In return, the ECB's previously controversial new "anti-fragmentation instrument" for interventions in the bond market also passed the committee - without the central bankers wanting to talk about "horse trading".

However, the decision to raise interest rates was not unanimous, as the minutes of the meeting reveal: Some Council members only advocated 0.25 percentage points.

"It has been argued that a 0.25 percentage point rate hike is more consistent with a gradual normalization of monetary policy given the looming recessionary risks," the minutes read.

This conflict is certainly not over.

In any case, the ECB does not want to let its president skip the exchange with colleagues in America in such a situation.

"The ECB is very well represented in Jackson Hole with 11 members of the Governing Council, including Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel," stressed an ECB spokesman.

"President Lagarde is also in constant contact with all members of the Governing Council as well as with her central bank colleagues outside the euro area."