ECB is unlikely to raise interest rates in Q3 in 2022 or anytime soon afterwards, De Cos says

MADRID (Reuters) – The European Central Bank is unlikely to raise interest rates in the third quarter of 2022, as the market is starting to anticipate, or any time soon afterwards, European Central Bank policymaker Pablo Hernandez de Cos said on Wednesday.

“Our analysis does not support that our forward guidance conditions are met at a time when financial markets are currently anticipating the first interest rate hike, around the third quarter of 2022, nor does it support that these conditions will be met at an early date after that,” De Cos told a financial event in Spain.

De Cos also said a recent surge in inflation was “transitory” though added that factors behind it, such as a hike in energy prices, could be more persistent than initially estimated, adding there was high uncertainty about its duration.

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado and Emma Pinedo; editing by Balazs Koranyi)