BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Central Bank does not expect the war in Ukraine to push the euro zone into stagflation even if it does push up inflation due to higher energy prices and push down growth, President Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying on Saturday.
“Incoming data don’t point to a material risk of stagflation,” Lagarde said in an interview with Phileleftheros published by the ECB on its website.
Lagarde said growth in the euro area could be as low as 2.3% in a severe scenario due to the war in 2022, however in all scenarios inflation is expected to decrease and settle at levels around the bank’s 2% target in 2024.
(Reporting by Emma Thomasson, Editing by William Maclean)