FRANKFURT -The European Central Bank needs to end the stimulus program it implemented in July. However, they could hike interest rates later in the month in September, Luis de Guindos (ECB vice-president) said in a Thursday interview.

The ECB announced last week it will stop purchasing bonds in the third trimester of the year, and that it will raise interest rates in the second quarter. It is ending years of monetary generousness in the face surprisingly high inflation.

De Guindos joined a growing list of ECB policymakers including Joachim Nagel (Bundesbank President) in calling for an immediate end to the Asset Purchase Programme.

Bloomberg’s de Guindos said that “my opinion is that this program should terminate in July”. He added, “For the first rate rise, we will have see our projections and all the scenarios. Only then can we decide.”

“From today’s perspective, (raising rates in) July is possible, and September or later is also possible,” he added.

Christine Lagarde (ECB President) spoke out to Washington policymakers Thursday. She said that the future of the bank’s actions will depend on the incoming data as well as the evolving assessment by the ECB.

She told the International Monetary and Financial Committee that “in the current circumstances of high uncertainty we will keep optionality, gradualism and flexibility in the conduct of monetary policy.”

Pierre Wunsch, a Belgian central bank governor and policy hawk was louder. He said in a Bloomberg interview, that increasing the ECB’s policy rate from minus 0.5% to zero, or slightly higher by year’s end, would be a “no brainer”.

The ECB will make updates to its macro-economic projections every month, in June and September.

These estimates are crucial, as the ECB said that rates would not be raised unless it was certain inflation will remain at or near its 2% target.

The euro zone saw inflation hit a new record of 7.5% in October. De Guindos suggested that it would remain above the ECB’s projections for the remainder of the year.

He said that inflation would begin to fall in the second half year. But it will remain above 4% for the last quarter.”

According to the ECB, March saw inflation of 5.6% in February and 5.2% in March.

Additionally, inflation was at 2.1% and 1.9% respectively in 2023-2024.