More hikes needed to combat inflation: Bundesbank chief

FRANKFURT, Germany - The European Central Bank still has further to go on hiking interest rates to combat "stubborn" eurozone inflation, German central bank chief Joachim Nagel said Monday.

The ECB has already raised rates by an unprecedented four percentage points over the past year in an attempt to cool consumer prices, with another rate increase expected later this month.

"The way I see it, we still have a way to go," Bundesbank president Nagel told a banking conference in Frankfurt.

Falling energy prices helped slow eurozone inflation to 5.5 per cent in June, down from 6.1 per cent in May.

But the measure remains "too high", Nagel said, and well above the ECB's two-per-cent target.

"Inflation is proving to be more stubborn than many had thought. Now, monetary policy must prove more persistent and consistent than many would have expected," Nagel said.

The bank's next moves would be data-driven, he added, but the "signals are clearly pointing in the direction of further tightening".

ECB president Christine Lagarde last month said it was "very likely" that policymakers would raise rates again at their next meeting on July 27. - AFP