ROME, Sept 19 (Askume) – European Central Bank’s governing council member Fabio Panetta said on Thursday the bank’s rate-cutting cycle is likely to accelerate in the coming months.
The European Central Bank cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points last week, following similar measures in June , while the Federal Reserve also cut interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday , kicking off an expected easing cycle.
Bank of Italy Governor Panetta, who is considered an expert on monetary policy, said the US central bank’s move as well as the economic slowdown in the euro zone required the European Central Bank to further cut interest rates.
“What we are seeing in Europe … is continued economic weakness,” he told an economic conference in Catania, Sicily.
“Maybe those two things, the signals from the U.S. and the signals from European economic indicators, might lead us to think that the (European Central Bank) might cut interest rates more aggressively in the coming months.”
