ECB not using neutral rate estimate to decide policy, Lagarde says

FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank's estimate for the neutral interest rate, which neither stimulates nor slows growth, is not used as an explicit goalpost by policymakers when setting interest rates, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Monday.

ECB chief economist Philip Lane earlier said the neutral rate is somewhere between 1.75% and 2.50%, a touch higher than earlier thought and this has raised some talk among ECB watchers that the ECB could still raise its 2.25% deposit rate one more time without leaving the neutral range.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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