Frankfurt (AFP)

The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, anticipates from July an adjustment of the institution's message on the future directions of its monetary policy, in connection with the recent revision of its inflation target.

As part of its new strategy, the ECB announced last Thursday a new medium-term inflation target of 2%, replacing the mantra "near but below 2%" that has prevailed for 18 years.

This will involve "interesting changes" in the way the ECB plans to go about achieving the desired level of inflation, Lagarde said in an interview with Bloomberg TV broadcast overnight from Sunday to Monday.

These changes will be communicated after the next monetary policy meeting scheduled for July 22 and already qualified as "important" by the Frenchwoman, who spoke in Venice after a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers. .

Since 2013, the ECB has expressed itself at the end of each monetary policy meeting on the future trajectory of its key rates and other exceptional monetary support measures, an exercise known as "forward guidance".

The markets cling to this central element of the central bank's communication which has an effect on the anchoring of inflation expectations over the medium term.

Also, the ECB having agreed on the "constitution", that is to say its new strategic framework, it now wants to "agree on the law", that is to say the communication on its future actions. , and this "in response to the circumstances" of the moment, explained Ms. Lagarde.

The earlier-than-expected conclusion of the ECB's strategic review is fueling speculation about the future of its monetary policy, based on low interest rates and heavy liquidity dumped on the markets.

G20 ministers alerted this weekend to the risks of a slowdown in the recovery, due to the spread of the Delta variant of the pandemic and the low vaccination rate in many countries.

Reaffirming that it is too early to downsize, Ms. Lagarde even suggests that the emergency plan consisting in buying bonds with an envelope of 1.850 billion euros, should be used "at least" until March 2022.

It could then evolve "to a new format", she added without further details.

© 2021 AFP