Frank Elderson, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the central bank, said in a media interview on Thursday, “we must reduce the very high rate of inflation.”

Additional quotes

“The rate increase decision made in March was robust."

“We are not pre-empting future decisions.”

“The ECB will reduce its bond holdings in a balanced manner.”

His comments come just ahead of the release of the flash estimate of the Spanish inflation data.

Also read: Euro area HICP Preview: Peak inflation or base effects? No trade-off for ECB (for now)

Market reaction

EUR/USD is holding steady just below 1.0850 on the above comments, awaiting the critical inflation readings from the euro area economies.