ICYMI – Holzmann says geopolitical risk is the biggest threat to a potential ECB rate cut

Austrian central bank Governor Holzmann, a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council.

He spoke with CNBC on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings.

• “At this stage, I think the biggest threat is geopolitics, because we have seen what’s happened in the Middle East,”
• “As you can imagine, only when a boat is sunk in the [Strait] of Hormuz and you may have a different oil price, and this of course may require us to rethink our strategy,”
• an abrupt rise in oil prices, for example, would constitute a “major, major shock.”

We had indications of a potential June rate cut from ECB policy makers on wedensday:

• ECBs Cipollone: Sees some signs of an economic recovery citing PMI data
• ECBs Nagel: Price pressure in the euro zone could continue for some time
• ECBs Schnabel:Investors expect policymakers to continue to pay attention to act. inflation
• ECBs Centeno: First cut in June is very likely.Number of cuts will depend on incoming data
• ECBs Nagel: A June cut is looking increasingly likely, but there is still some caveats
• ECB Pres. Lagarde: Growth in Europe mediocre. Much slower than the US

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.