ECB's Villeroy: Inflation is a disease, rates medicine starting to work

The European Central Bank will maintain its interest rates at 4% for a sufficiently long time in its bid to bring down inflation, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday. "Inflation is a disease and rates are the medicine. The medicine is starting to work.... We think 4% is a good level.

The European Central Bank will maintain its interest rates at 4% for a sufficiently long time in its bid to bring down inflation, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday.

"Inflation is a disease and rates are the medicine. The medicine is starting to work.... We think 4% is a good level. We need to maintain the rates at 4% a sufficiently long time," Villeroy de Galhau, who is also the governor of the French central bank, told BFM television.

The ECB raised its main interest rate earlier this month to a record high 4% and signalled its latest hike was likely to be the last as the euro zone's economy slows.