ECB’s Makhlouf: Premature to make decisions based on new U.S. administration

DUBLIN (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymaker Gabriel Makhlouf said it would be premature to start making decisions on what a new U.S. administration might do when asked if Donald Trump’s election moves the dial on his thinking on inflation.

“I do think it would be premature to come to conclusions as to exactly what it is that the new U.S. administration is going to do, and to start making decisions based on that assumption,” Makhlouf told reporters on Monday.

Makhlouf added that it would be going a bit far to say an ECB interest rate cut next month is “in the bag” and that the evidence would need to be “pretty overwhelming” to consider a 50-basis-point cut at the Dec. 12 meeting.