ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane said in a conference over the weekend, monetary tightening is “going to dampen demand”, and “we’re not going to pretend this is pain free”.

“Demand is now a source of inflation pressure, it was not six or nine months ago in the same way it now is,” he added.

While rate hikes could continue at each remaining meeting of the year, and extend to early next year, Lane said ECB is open mind on where to stop with a meeting-by-meeting approach.

On the economy, Lane said separately in an RTE interview, “If we think our base case is to barely grow, a technical recession – falling into a mild recession – cannot be ruled out.”

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on Sunday, “If the data trend continues, more interest-rate increases have to follow — that’s already agreed in the Governing Council. We have to be determined, in October and beyond.”

Nagel added that interest rates are still “somewhat off the levels” to curb inflation. “We must bring inflation back under control,” he said. “We mustn’t let up, even if the economy worsens.”

On the German economy, he said that momentum will likely slow in Q3 and Q4, but he’s confident that it could avoid a steep slump.

ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos told a Portuguese newspaper Expresso, “the slowdown of the economy is not going to ‘take care’ of inflation on its own.”

“The slowdown of the economy will reduce demand pressures, which will lower inflation,” he added. “But, simultaneously, we have to act from the monetary policy standpoint to keep inflation expectations anchored and avoid second-round effects.”

“We need to continue the normalization of monetary policy,” he said. “More hikes might come in the next few months — how many times and by how much will depend fundamentally on the data — and we underscore our full determination to make inflation converge toward our definition of price stability”

“Further depreciation of the euro could be detrimental to inflationary pressures. On the contrary, if the euro stopped depreciating, this could be positive and support the fight against inflation. I hope that the recent depreciation trend is reversed in the near future”, he also noted.

ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos said in a speech, “monetary policy needs to be focused on price stability and on delivering our inflation target over the medium term. Determined action is essential to keep inflation expectations anchored, which in itself contributes to delivering price stability and avoids second-round effects in inflation. The main asset that central banks have is credibility, and this asset becomes even more important in times of high uncertainty.”

On the economy, de Guindos said, “A period of heightened uncertainty is here to stay for a while, rendering decision-making more complex. Output growth is slowing down substantially and is expected to stagnate around year-end and remain low next year at less than 1%, while risks have intensified on the downside. This is set against a deteriorating inflation outlook with record-high inflation rates expected to stay elevated, well above our target, with risks primarily on the upside.”

Full speech here.