PARIS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymaker Joachim Nagel said in an interview published on Tuesday that the ECB needed to keep tightening in order to dampen price pressures and keep inflation expectations anchored.
"We have to continue tightening monetary policy to dampen price pressures and keep inflation expectations anchored at our inflation target. High inflation is certainly placing a heavy strain on families, firms and our economies as a whole," Nagel told French magazine L'Express, in an interview conducted alongside his fellow ECB member Francois Villeroy de Galhau.
"The worst hit are the people who have so little in the first place. We need to rein in inflation. Our job is not done yet," added Nagel.
European Central Bank policymakers laid out diverging views on future interest rate hikes on Monday, suggesting that moves beyond next week's half a percentage point increase remain contentious.
The ECB promised in December a steady pace of 50 basis point increases spanning multiple meetings to combat sky high inflation but markets have been doubting its resolve and pricing for March has been oscillating between 25 and 50 basis point increases as policymakers speak. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
