SINTRA, Portugal, June 27 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will likely keep raising interest rates after its next meeting even as the economy slows because inflation remains too high, ECB policymaker Martins Kazaks said on Tuesday.
But Kazaks, the Latvian central bank governor, said he expected the euro zone economy to simply slow or stagnate, rather than contract, and this should not stop the ECB in its fight against high inflation.
"I think rates will need to be raised past July but when and by how much will be data dependent."
But Kazaks pushed back against market bets on rate cuts by the ECB in the first half of next year.
"And not at the end of the forecast period but towards the middle of the forecast period."
Persons:
ECB policymaker Martins Kazaks, Kazaks, we’ll, Francesco Canepa, Shri Navaratnam
Organizations:
European Central Bank, ECB policymaker, ECB, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
SINTRA, Portugal, Germany, Latvian, ECB's