FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Inflation in the euro zone will go up at a steady pace over the coming years but there is no risk of a new period of exceptionally high price growth, European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane said on Tuesday.
The broadest measure of unemployment is at around 15% and wage growth is weak so the current period of relatively high price growth will not turn into durable rise in prices, Lane said in an academic lecture.
“It’s very difficult to have very strong wage inflation when the labour market is in that condition,” Lane said. “We do think that inflation will go up at a steady pace over time, but the idea that there is some new paradigm, I don’t really buy into that.”
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa)
