the european central banks chief economist on tuesday said it was not the right time to end interest rate hikes despite easing inflation in the eurozone the ecb has raised rates by 35 percentage points since july last year in an unprecedented campaign of monetary tightening to bring soaring consumer prices under control the central bank holds its next meeting on may 4 and with inflation in the 20nation currency club slowing all eyes are on whether policymakers will implement another hike and by how much current data are indicating that we should raise rates again chief economist philip lane said this is still not the right time to stop he said in an interview published on the ecbs website in march consumer prices in the eurozone rose by 69 percent on an annual basis the figure was the lowest rate recorded in a year and much below the peak of 106 percent recorded in october lane said the significant drop was welcome as it reduces pressure on the cost of living nevertheless it was most important to return to the ecbs inflation target of two percent within a reasonable time period he said ecb board member isabel schnabel had on tuesday also suggested the frankfurtbased bank would not shy away from further rate increases i would say its clear that further rate hikes are needed but the size of the rate hikes is going to depend on the incoming data she said depending on the data a hike of as much as 50 basis points was not off the table she said