Lagarde speech: Inflation to start declining again in early 2022

Christine Lagarde, President of the Europen Central Bank (ECB), is delivering her remarks on the monetary policy outlook in a press conference following the ECB's decision to leave the policy settings unchanged in June.

Key takeaways

"We expect growth to improve strongly in the second half of the year."

"Risks in near term are broadly balanced."

"Inflation is expected to decline again at the start of 2022."

"Underlying price pressures are expected to increase somewhat this year."

"Once the pandemic impact fades, underlying inflation will gradually rise in medium term."

"Temporary factors are behind inflation projection rise."

"Core inflation is projected to rise to 1.1% in 2021 to 1.3% in 2022, 1.4% in 2023."

About ECB President Lagarde

The European Central Bank's President Christine Lagarde, born in 1956 in France, has formerly served as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and minister of finance in France. She began her eight-year term at the helm of the ECB in November 2019. As part of her job in the Governing Council, Lagarde holds press conferences in detailing how the ECB observes the current and future state of the European economy. Her comments may positively or negatively the euro's trend in the short-term. Usually, a hawkish outlook boosts the euro (bullish), while a dovish one weighs on the common currency (bearish).