The only correct thing is to lower the interest rate in June, provided that the current forecasts of a decreasing inflation rate and a slower economic cycle hold. This is what the Finnish member of the European Central Bank (ECB), Olli Rehn, said during an appearance in Helsinki on Friday.
The Lithuanian colleague, ECB member Gediminas Simkus, is on the same track.
For me, the June decision is pretty clear, he said at an economic meeting on Iceland, referring to a decrease.
In that case, it would be the eighth decrease since the interest rate peaked last year in the wake of the inflation crisis. On the interest rate market, two or three additional decreases are expected.
The ECB's most important interest rate, the deposit rate, is currently at 2.25 percent after the latest decrease in April, the same level as the Swedish Riksbank's interest rate.
