Speaking to Econostream Media, ECB Governing Council member and head of the National Bank of Belgium Pierre Wunsch said that the global macroeconomic environment had changed significantly over the last three months, thus increasing the uncertainty faced by ECB policymakers. It wouldn't take much in terms of exogenous developments to push Eurozone consumer price inflation to 2.0%, he added. "All of us need to be patient, but we shouldn't exclude that the inflationary forces are quite strong and at some point will require a reaction", he told Econostream Media. 

Market Reaction

EUR/USD has been seeing downside in recent trade as a result of recent strong US retail sales data and hawkish Fed commentary, which has pushed US yields higher. The pair has slipped below earlier session lows just above 1.1350 and is now in the 1.1330s. Needless to say, these are fresh year-to-date lows.

The latest remarks from hawkish ECB member Wunsch thus appear to have been roundly ignored. Hawks on the ECB typically make up a minority who are unable to affect the board direction of policy.