European Central Bank Governing Council member Mario Centeno noted on Monday that inflation in the euro area is falling in a sustained way, adding that almost all factors that drove prices up have dissipated.
The official also expressed the view that there is no need to wait for the May release of the first-quarter wage data for the ECB to get an idea about the inflation trajectory to make rate decisions. "There is a lot more information, and [being] data-dependent is not [being] wage-data dependent," he stressed.
In addition, Centeno said that he believes the ECB should start cutting rates sooner rather than later, but emphasised that the cuts should be more gradual to give economic agents time to adapt to changes. He added that he sees a 25 basis-point cut as a good metric.