ECB's Rehn says the wage growth and outlook remain moderate, there are no clear signs of second‑round effects

The reference to absent second-round effects and moderate wage growth is the standard formulation governing ECB officials have used in past cycles to signal that the wage channel, the last domestic pillar of the inflation case, no longer blocks further easing. In prior episodes, language of this kind from a sitting Governing Council member has tended to matter less as news than as a read on where the committee's centre of gravity sits, since it is the median voter and not individual voices that sets the path; the tell is whether other members adopt the same phrasing or push back on it. The distinction worth drawing is between wage moderation as confirmation of trend disinflation, which supports the level and slope of the expected path, and a one-off data read, which reprices only the timing of the next cut. Remarks framed around anchored expectations historically raise the sensitivity of negotiated wage data, services inflation, and the ECB's own wage trackers, which have been the releases most likely to move the front end and the belly when this debate has run before. As commentary rather than a decision, the signal is directional; the follow-ons are the next council speakers and the wage prints ahead of the meeting.