LISBON, May 30 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank must act on inflation sooner rather than later, ECB Governing Council member Alvaro Santos Pereira told Portugal’s Antena 1 broadcaster on Saturday.
“Our concern right now is inflation; we need to look at the data very closely. But I also think, looking at what happened in the past, that we need to act sooner rather than later, to avoid a greater second-round impact,” said Pereira, who is also governor of the Bank of Portugal.
“When there is an inflationary spiral, I prefer that we act swiftly and decisively.”
Asked whether that meant that he would support an interest rate hike at next month’s ECB meeting, he said: “We will have new ECB estimates and data from different countries, we will look at what is happening with prices and then we will make a decision.”
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip)
