European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that that a 50-basis-point increase in interest rates is "still on the table" for the March policy meeting, underlining that the region's inflation rate remained "too high."
Speaking in an interview with Spanish TV morning program, Espejo Publico, the central bank's chief stated that despite a three-month downward trend in inflation, the rate climbed again in February, indicating that the price decline is "not stable." Lagarde forecasted that prices will begin to lower in March, but underlined that the central bank's monetary policy will be guided by incoming data in order to achieve the 2% inflation target.
The latest data showed that annual inflation rate in Spain increased by 6.1% in February, while the figure in Germany rose by 8.7%.