According to Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, the ECB must raise interest rates in the fight against inflation and accept dampeners for the economy. "Of course, not everyone likes that," he emphasized on Tuesday evening at the business day of the Economic Council of the CDU in Berlin. But even if raising interest rates to a sufficiently restrictive level requires unpopular decisions, the ECB must live up to its mandate: The medium-term target of the monetary authorities for inflation is 2 percent: "No more and no less. And we want to achieve this goal in a timely manner."

At the conference, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing also spoke out in favour of further interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB) in order to get the highest inflation in decades under control: "This poison has to get out." The high inflation has a massive impact on consumers. At least 30 percent of bank customers would no longer be able to cover their normal expenses from their income, but would have to access their savings.

In Nagel's view, price stability makes an important contribution to social cohesion in society and to economic participation. "Prosperity for all cannot be achieved with high inflation," the head of the central bank stressed.

Although the headline inflation rate is declining, core inflation remains stubbornly high: In April, the inflation rate excluding the cost of energy and food rose by 5.6 percent in the euro area. This was only slightly less than in March, when this so-called core rate had reached an all-time high: "It shows that the wave of inflation is now broad-based," said Nagel. He said he would personally work to get inflation under control.

Several more interest rate hikes are definitely needed to reach a sufficiently restrictive level: "Our job is not done yet," said the Bundesbank chief. The art of monetary policy now is to be more persistent than inflation. Companies and trade unions must also join in the fight against inflation: "Let's kill the beast of inflation together."

The ECB's monetary watchdogs led by central bank chief Christine Lagarde raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points at the beginning of May. Since then, the deposit rate that financial institutions receive for parking surplus funds, which is decisive on the financial markets, has been 3.25 percent. It was already the seventh interest rate hike in a row. Numbers eight and nine could follow in the summer: Economists polled by Reuters expect further small hikes of 0.25 percentage points each for the ECB's interest rate meetings in June and July.