In a wide-ranging interview with IMF Today, President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde highlighted tackling inflation as the key challenge over the coming months.

Lagarde highlighted Ukraine’s recent gain in Russia’s war on the country as a success.

“I think the big difference between April and now is that Ukraine is gaining ground, that it had lost in those days, and that it is showing a spirit of resilience and determination, which probably was not expected back in April. We all hoped that it would be the case, but clearly it is being demonstrated on the ground,” said Lagarde.

President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde said that the Bank must return inflation to where it needs to be.

“Well, from my own perspective, as president of the European Central Bank, what we need to do is to return inflation to where it should be in the medium term, that is 2%. We are at a very high level and miserably high at the moment, and we need to do the job that we have to do, which is to return to the 2% medium term inflation. That for us is price stability. Now, obviously, lots of other things have to be to be done by lots of other people. And I’m sure that the IMF will be a good forum to discuss what is needed for Ukraine in terms of financial support, in terms of reconstruction when the war is over, and so on and so forth. People I know are working hard on those on those numbers and on the rescue packages that need to be put in place,” said Lagarde.

President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde said that the Bank has the ability to achieve price stability.

“Of course it is possible to work on consensus. It doesn’t mean that there is unanimity. It means that people are prepared to move in the right direction, which is determined by the mission that they have. In the case of the European Central Bank, it’s fairly straightforward. We have to deliver price stability. We have defined price stability as 2% in the medium term, and we have to use the tools that we have available, which will be the most efficient to deliver that,” said Lagarde.

President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde highlighted the need for institutions to cooperate and work together.

“I would say that. Nobody can go alone and count on it’s own resources only. So we are in a situation where everybody needs to help everybody else, be mindful of everybody else and also accept that we don’t know it all. We know that this winter is going to be tough. What we know about next year. Yeah. Everybody likes to make prediction. To have projections for a year from now, I think we have to be a little bit humble and be prepared to constantly review the situation, revisit our projections, and take the determined action that is needed,” said Lagarde.

To view full interviews from IMF Today: https://www.youtube.com/user/imf/featured