• France’s Francois Villeroy de Galhau hinted that a fresh rate hike could still come at a later date and argued that the slowdown is not a recession and that the ECB needed to persevere in its fight with inflation.
• Slovakia’s Peter Kazimir, an outspoken policy hawk, was more explicit, arguing that another hike was still needed to tame inflation. He said the ECB could delay a rate rise to one of its autumn meetings or pull the trigger next week.
• Dutch central bank governor Klaas Knot, another staunch advocate of policy tightening in the past, said investors may be underestimating the chances of a rate hike next Thursday, and that the decision would be “a close call”.
• Bundesbank chief Joachim Nagel, also a past advocate of rapid hikes, took a similarly measured view, saying next week’s decision would depend, among other factors, on the ECB’s new economic projections. Rate cuts were not imminent in any case, he added.