ECB's Rehn says growth outlook is better today than start of the year, adds not seeing second-round effects on inflation

Commentary from a mid-spectrum Governing Council member matters mainly as a check on where the committee's centre of gravity sits rather than as new information in itself; Rehn has historically tracked close to the consensus and tends to be an early voice for whichever way the median is drifting. The more substantive signal here is the second-round effects framing, since the persistence of wage growth feeding into services prices has been the core argument for keeping policy restrictive, and officials dropping that concern has in past easing debates preceded a shift in the risk language of the account and eventually the statement. A better growth outlook than at the start of the year, paired with comfort on inflation dynamics, is the combination that has historically supported a lower terminal path without the data-dependent caveats hardening. The distinction worth drawing is between rate-path expectations at the front end, which move on this kind of dovish-leaning confirmation, and longer-dated term premium, which responds more to the growth half of the message; the two have at times pulled the curve in different directions on similar remarks. The follow-ons are whether other Council members echo the second-round language in the coming days and how the upcoming staff projections handle wage assumptions, since that is where this framing either gets institutional backing or fades. As single-member remarks the read-through is directional, not decisional.