Gediminas Simkus, a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank, saidHttpslevvvelcomcoinmasterHe believes that from the planned June, interest rates will be cut three times in 2024.

The Lithuanian official said Monday that the development of the euro zone is more or less in line with the basic situation, and that unless something unexpected happens, the ECB has room to relax its restrictive monetary policy stance.

"if everything goes according to the expected path," he told reporters in Vilnius.HttpslevvvelcomcoinmasterMy idea is that there will be some other interest rate cuts in the future. " "I expect three interest rate cuts this year, but I'm not sure if there will be four."

While policymakers agreed to cut deposit rates in June, they are divided over how much further easing should be made next. Simkus is part of the push to raise interest rates because he is encouraged by the fall in inflation to 2 per cent. Other tougher officials worry that consumer prices could rise again if wage growth is not modest enough or if conflicts in the Middle East push up energy costs.

In fact, Mr Simkus's Croatian counterpart at the ECB, Boris Vujicic, is more cautious, declining to comment on how many rate cuts he expects this year.

"We will make a decision in July," he said at the same event. "it will depend entirely on the data. If the forecast is the same as what we are seeing so far, I expect monetary policy to relax, but will remain sufficiently restrictive to ensure that inflation falls to 2 per cent. "

Simkus agrees that the upcoming economic report will determine the way forward.

"the restrictions on starting to cut or reduce monetary policy cannot be limited to June cuts," Simkus said. " "Let's see, because we rely on data."