European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel: Increasing interest rates in April is one option, but the decision depends on the direction of the conflict.

As the European Central Bank faces increasingly heated calls for interest rate hikes, Governing Council member Wim Schelhes said that while a rate increase in April is an option, the central bank will avoid overreacting to geopolitical shocks, and any action will strictly rely on future data. Schelhes' statements provide the market with a clear decision-making framework. He pointed out that if the Middle East conflict primarily ends before the April meeting, the economic outlook will be closer to the central bank's baseline scenario, and there will be "no need to take action in April."