(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank Governing Council member Gediminas Simkus said he sees borrowing costs being reduced three times in 2024 — starting with the planned move in June.

The euro-zone is developing more or less in line with the base case and, barring surprises, there’s room to loosen the ECB’s restrictive monetary-policy stance, the Lithuanian official said Monday.

“If everything evolves the way it’s in the baseline, my thinking is that there are some other interest-rate cuts coming in the future,” he told reporters in Vilnius. “This year I would expect three cuts and not sure about four.”

Policymakers, while in agreement over lowering the deposit rate in June, diverge over how much more easing should follow. Simkus falls in the camp that’s pushing for more — emboldened by the retreat in inflation toward 2%. Other more hawkish officials worry that consumer-price growth could yet be reignited should wage gains not moderate sufficiently or conflict in the Middle East drive up energy costs.

Indeed, Simkus’s Croatian counterpart at the ECB, Boris Vujcic, is more cautious, refusing to comment on how many rate reductions he sees this year.

“We will decide in July,” he told the same event. “It’s going to be completely data-dependent. If the projections stand as we see it at the moment, I would expect loosening of the monetary policy but still staying in a restrictive enough territory to make sure that inflation is brought down to 2% level.”

Simkus agreed that incoming economic reports will determine the path ahead.

“Starting cutting or affording less restrictive monetary policy can’t be limited to a cut in June,” Simkus said. “Let’s see, because we’re data-dependent.”

--With assistance from Jasmina Kuzmanovic.

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