The IMF asks the ECB to reduce interest rates by 2% and keep it unchanged

He International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggested this Friday that the European Central Bank (ECB) should Reduce your official interest rate to a last step to 2% This summer, in order to Maintain an agile monetary policy And focused on achieving sustainable objectives.

More specifically, according to the IMF, the ECB would have succeeded in its struggle to stop inflation. So much that, during the second half of this 2025, he could achieve his stability goal in the second half of 2025. Of course, he advised the entity chaired by Christine Lagarde make a single one and Last reduction of a quarter price of moneythus leaving the stable reference rate in 2%, except for significant disturbances.

Alfredo Kammer, director of the IMF department for Europe, stressed that this adjustment This would be the last measure necessary to consolidate the progress made in disinflationAlthough he has warned that the ECB should maintain this level, except that global relevance disorders occur.

“Behind him Great success of the ECB’s disinflationist effortCentral banks should continue to normalize monetary policy with caution, “Kammer said in their traditional press conference, the last day of the meeting that every spring celebrates the IMF in Washington. There, he also declared that global tensions could cause a new increase in prices expectations, while a worst economic development in Europe would support them.

In this sense, to capture current uncertainty, the director of the Europe department defends the Importance of the old continent “betting on more trade and not for less”preserving its commercial opening and expanding its network of free trade agreements. However, it warns the need to carefully monitor the impact of the possible gap of trade with the arrival in Europe of China exports before the high prices applied by the United States, which the IMF estimates at an equivalent value at around 0.25% of the EU GDP, in the short term.

Since June of last year, the ECB has reduced interest rates seven times, Going from 4% to 2.25% current, With the possibility of a new cup in sight at the meeting of June 5. However, Lagarde, president of the ECBHe said the decision will depend on data and events that occur until that time.

THE Trade war initiated by the President of the United StatesDonald Trump, has changed the world landscape and complicated forecasts from central banks. While In Europe, inflation seems to be under controlKammer stressed that trade tensions could lead to a rebound in inflation expectations, although a possible recession scenario in Europe can generate downward pressures.