Factbox-Key ECB policymaker comments since Feb rate hike

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The following are key quotes from the 26 members of the European Central Bank's rate-setting Governing Council on the future evolution of inflation and interest rates.

The comments are in chronological order with the newest on top.

Francois Villeroy de Galhau, French central bank chief, Feb. 17

"I think it is possible that we will have reached this peak (in interest rates) by summer ... which officially ends in September... We shall probably go beyond this 3%.

"We need to be wary of declaring victory too soon ... this issue (of rate cuts) is of course further off in the future, and definitely not for this year."

Isabel Schnabel, ECB board member, Feb. 17

"Markets are priced for perfection ... but there is a risk that inflation proves to be more persistent than is currently priced by financial markets.

"There are reasons to believe that transmission may be weaker than in previous episodes ... (so) we may have to act more forcefully if transmission turns out to be weaker.

"We are still far away from claiming victory on inflation."

Philip Lane, ECB chief economist, Feb. 16

"This tightening is estimated to have already lowered inflation by around 0.2 percentage points in 2022. The considerable lags between monetary policy actions and their impact on inflation, however, imply that most of the effects are only expected to materialise from 2023 onward ... Inflation is estimated to be around 1.2 percentage points lower in 2023 and 1.8 percentage points lower in 2024."

Fabio Panetta, ECB board member, Feb. 16

"We should keep our policy tight until we see inflation firmly converging back to 2% over our policy horizon.

"But with rates now moving into restrictive territory, it is the extent and duration of monetary policy restriction that matters. By smoothing our policy rate hikes – that is, moving in small steps – we can ensure that we calibrate (policy) more precisely.

"We now need to take into account the risk of overtightening alongside the risk of doing too little."

Gabriel Makhlouf, Irish central bank chief, Feb. 14

"I could see it [interest rates] being higher than 3.5% ... I’m open to acting forcefully to get inflation down to our target.”

Ignazio Visco, Italian central bank chief, Feb. 11

"Disinflation is obviously needed, but given the levels of private and public debts that prevail in the euro area, we must be careful to avoid engineering an unnecessary and excessive rise in real interest rates.

"The costs linked to the risk of doing too much must not be considered less important, as we have learned from the experience in the aftermath of the great financial crisis."

Boris Vujcic, Croatian central bank governor, Feb. 10

"I would agree that we are likely to see more rate action beyond March."

Klaas Knot, Dutch central bank chief, Feb. 8

"If underlying inflation pressures do not materially abate, maintaining the current pace of hikes into May could well remain warranted.

"Once we see a clear and decisive turn in underlying inflation dynamics, I ... expect us to move to smaller steps. Absent such a turn, the ECB will continue to stay the course on its steady pace upwards."

Joachim Nagel, German central bank chief, Feb. 7

"From where I stand today we need further, significant rate hikes."

Pierre Wunsch, Belgian central bank chief, Feb. 3

"I don’t think we're going to move from 50 basis points (in March) to zero. It might be another 50 basis points or we might be moving to 25. I will certainly not exclude another 50 basis points but that's going to be dependent on the data."

"If core (inflation) remains persistent, if we keep seeing core momentum being close to 5%, for me a terminal rate of 3.5% would be a minimum."

Gediminas Simkus, Lithuanian central bank chief, Feb. 3

"The March rate hike is not the last one. It could be 50 basis points in (May) or 25, but hardly 75."

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Susan Fenton)