Member of the European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council and Central Bank of Ireland President Gabriel Makhlouf stated on Wednesday that he would not like to "speculate" on how much the institution will hike interest rates while confirming a new rise in March.
Speaking before the Irish parliament's Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, the Public Expenditure and Reform Department, and Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar, Makhlouf stressed that inflation "remains far too high" and that the ECB will have to keep raising the rates "significantly at a steady pace" to bring it down to its target of 2%.
Commenting more specifically on Ireland's economy, Makhlouf reaffirmed his earlier stance that inflation is expected to have peaked in the fourth quarter of 2022 and that it will keep going down throughout 2023.