FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate bidding to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel in this month’s election, said he was confident the European Central Bank (ECB) would achieve price stability, as accelerating inflation hits savers.

According to Laschet, “It’s alarming that small savings, pensions life insurances and building loans contracts lose value.” He was quoted by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

I’m confident that the ECB will be able to fulfill its primary task, which is monetary stability. He said that this means the government will have to deal with a higher debt burden if the interest rate rises again.

Laschet made these remarks a week prior to the September 26th general election. They contrast with Friedrich Merz, his chief expert on fiscal and economic strategies who lashed out this week at the ECB for its loose monetary policy.

This month, the ECB announced that it will reduce emergency bond purchases in the next quarter. It is a small step toward removing the assistance that helped to sustain the euro area economy through the coronavirus epidemic.

The ECB anticipates that inflation will rise to 2.2% this year. This is higher than its 2% target. It also expects it to fall below 1.7% and 1.5% by 2022.

Ipsos has released the latest German election poll. It shows the CDU/CSU bloc as 21%, and the SPD at 27%.