YEREVAN, August 20. /ARKA/. Patrick Honohan, a member of European Central Bank Governing Council, said he sees a “stronger tone” to the European economy and has no immediate concern about inflationary pressure, Bloomberg reports.
Speaking about second-quarter gross domestic product in Europe, he said that “there is every indication that inflation expectations are steady, are not moving around, and the projection of actual inflation is still well within where we would like it to be”, RIA Novosti News Agency reports.
Media reports show ECB policy makers are divided on the risks posed by inflation.
Athanasios Orphanides, a governing council member said earlier that he is not worried about inflation driven by energy prices, while his colleague, Guy Quaden, said that the ECB needs to be “more attentive about this issue”.
Another council member, Juergen Stark, assumed in July that some countries of the euro zone may show adverse inflation indicators, but he didn’t think that the deflation would pose threat to the whole region.
Year-on-year growth in consumer prices in the Euro zone accelerated in July to 1.7% from 1.4% in June.
Year-on-year inflation in 27 EU countries reached 2.1% in July against 1.9% in June.
According to ECB outlooks, inflation in the Euro zone will reach 1.4 to 1.6% in 2010 and 1 to 2.2% in 2011.
The Euro zone and EU’s GDP grew 1% in the second quarter, compared with the previous quarter.
Year-on-year GDP grew 1.7% in Apr-June 2010. -0-
