ECB hawks trying to keep the door open for more rate hikes

This might be what is helping the euro a little so far today, as the FT is reporting that several of the ECB’s more hawkish members are of the view that there could be another rate hike in December if wages and inflation pressures continue to persist. It cites three policymakers in saying that:

“I don’t agree that we are definitely done. We would need a very negative surprise (on inflation) to hike again in October, but we might in December.”

Adding that a 25 bps rate hike in December is “still possible”.

To be honest, this rhetoric was to be expected after the more dovish take yesterday and I really thought Lagarde would be the one to have did that in her press conference. But turns out, she did not.

I would take all this with a pinch of salt. Unless we do see some heavy surprises in the inflation data in the months ahead, this is nothing more than a theoretical threat to the current outlook for ECB pricing.