ECB’s Escrivá: Central bank to keep all options on a meeting-by-meeting basis

European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker and Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, said on Wednesday that the central bank “will keep all options on the table and decide on a meeting-by-meeting basis.”

Additional quotes

If the recent decline in oil prices were to persist, the factors that had concerned policymakers would gradually ease.

The rise in oil prices over recent months had started to be transmitted to other prices in the economy.

Monetary policy would normally look through one-off energy price shocks, but we started to see indirect effects over recent months with rising services inflation, transport costs and food prices.

We had to react by raising interest rates.

The ECB should remain agile given the uncertainty.

Market reaction

As of writing, EUR/USD is defending 1.1400 following these comments, modestly flat on the day.

Escrivá flags energy-driven risks but keeps ECB flexible

Escrivá’s 6.2/10 FXS Speechtracker score stands above the historic 5.4/10 baseline, signaling a mildly more hawkish tone than usual. The emphasis on past rate hikes in response to indirect energy effects on services inflation, transport costs and food prices underlines concern about second-round pressures in the Euro area.

However, the conditional remark that a sustained decline in oil prices would ease those concerns tempers the hawkishness. Escrivá’s insistence that the ECB remain agile, keep all options on the table and decide on a meeting-by-meeting basis points to a flexible stance that leaves Euro traders focused on incoming energy and inflation data for direction.