(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank doesn’t necessarily need full insight into wage developments in the coming months to set monetary policy, Governing Council member Mario Centeno said. 

“I don’t think we have to wait until May to make decisions,” Centeno told Econostream Media in an interview. “I don’t see any sign that second-round effects on wages have materialized or will materialize or that wages will put additional pressure on prices.” 

The Bank of Portugal governor also said that “the most recent developments on inflation and the economy have obviously brought the moment of easing closer to us,” and officials will decide when to cut interest rates “sooner than we thought until recently.” 

Centeno, who’s among the more dovish ECB officials, also said: 

• December inflation report for the euro area was “good news” because the acceleration in price growth was “smaller than the market expected and less than the base effects incorporated in the forecasts”
• “The latest euro area PMI data were not good. We have widespread weaknesses in the economy that are being transmitted to the labor market; in fact, many of the research notes on the PMIs referred to this continued weakness in the labor market. We must pay close attention to this”

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.