European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said on Thursday that it was realistic to expect that the ECB interest rates are likely to be in positive territory by early next year, as reported by Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"We have reached the point where we on ECB's Governing Council need to act."

"It is time for the council to move to end net asset purchases under the asset purchase programme next month or in July."

"The current level of inflation is concerning."

"Our objective is for inflation to be at 2 % over the medium term - levels are significantly above that now."

"The era of negative rates is reaching its conclusion."

"We are continuing on a path towards the normalisation of monetary policy."

"Tightening labour market should result in stronger and broader-based wage growth than we have observed in recent years."

"Potential of wages becoming detached from underlying productivity growth presents clear risks to Irish competitiveness."

Market reaction

The shared currency stays under selling pressure despite these hawkish comments and EUR/USD was last seen losing 0.75% on a daily basis at 1.0433.