By AFP 17 January 2024 | 4:15 pm The European Central Bank could start cutting interest rates this summer, President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday, while stressing that any such move would depend on the latest economic data. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde speaks at the non-monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, on February 22, 2023. (Photo by Tarmo LEHTOSALO / LEHTIKUVA / AFP) / Finland OUT / FINLAND OUT The European Central Bank could start cutting interest rates this summer, President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday, while stressing that any such move would depend on the latest economic data. The ECB began hiking borrowing costs at an historically fast pace in July 2022 to tame red-hot inflation after Russia’s war in Ukraine sent energy costs soaring. Easing inflation and a darkening economic picture since then led the ECB to freeze borrowing costs at its last two meetings, prompting speculation about when the Frankfurt institute might start cutting rates. In an interview with Bloomberg television in Davos, Lagarde was asked to comment on hints by ECB governing council members that cuts could come in the summer. “I would say it’s likely too,” Lagarde said. “But I have to be reserved because we are also saying that we are data-dependent and that there is still a level of uncertainty and some indicators that are not anchored at the level where we would like to see them.” Markets have been pricing in rate cuts from as early as April, but ECB governors have been at pains to tamp down those expectations in recent weeks. Eurozone inflation stood at 2.9 percent in December, down significantly from a double-digit peak in late 2022, but still above the ECB’s two-percent target. Lagarde said inflation was “on the right path” but it was too early to declare victory. She cited energy prices and possible supply chain disruptions as key risk factors. The ECB was also keeping a close eye on wage negotiations in the eurozone as well as companies’ profit margins for their potential “serious impact” on the bank’s battle against inflation, she added. “We will know a lot more, probably in April, May,” Lagarde said, once wage agreements have been concluded. 3 hours ago Comoros security forces responded with tear gas and arrests on Wednesday after groups, angered by the re-election of President Azali Assoumani, tried to block roads in the capital. 3 hours ago The M23 rebel group said on Wednesday that two of its commanders had been killed in fighting with army troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 3 hours ago The Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo has assured that the State legislature would redouble its efforts towards conducting effective legislative oversight on all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of Government to improve transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Year 2024 Appropriation Law. Oluomo disclosed this at the resumption of… 3 hours ago The European Central Bank could start cutting interest rates this summer, President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday, while stressing that any such move would depend on the latest economic data. 4 hours ago Northern Ethnic Group Assembly (NEYGA) has described reports linking transactions carried out by the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu to Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila as a hatchet job meant to ridicule the former speaker of the House of Representatives. The group alleged that those behind the… 5 hours ago The Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI) has lamented that despite the importance, positive impact, and benefits of research institutes, funds allocated for them in the country has been inadequate. 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