European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau reiterated on Tuesday that they will raise interest rates as much as necessary to bring core inflation down, as reported by Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"This will have a positive effect on banks’ net income, European banks are hence more solid than feared by some."

"We should go to neutral rate without hesitation, by the end of the year."

"We could start then a second part of the journey, a more flexible and possibly slower one."

"I don’t say that rate hikes will stop there but we will have to comprehensively assess inflation and economic outlook."

"We are no longer gradual, but it is important to remain orderly."

"It means that you neither excessively surprise markets, nor tighten financial conditions too abruptly."

Market reaction

EUR/USD preserves its bullish momentum after these comments and was last seen gaining 0.65% on the day at 0.9888.