As the EU faces skyrocketing inflation fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s central bank president Olli Rehn indicated Monday that the ECB would have to hike its key interest rate as soon as July.

The ECB has kept interest rates at zero in recent years to support a struggling European economy.

However, as consumer prices have risen considerably, calls have arisen for the ECB to cease its stimulus and raise its key rates in line with other central banks.

In contrast to the United States, where wages have increased by 6% this year, Rehn remarked in an interview with the Welt daily that salary increases in Europe have been limited to 1.5 to 2.5 percent.

However, he said there were already signs of such second-round effects of inflation.

“We must therefore prevent the inflation expectations from becoming entrenched,” he said.

“It is necessary that we raise the key interest rate in the third quarter, probably in July,” added Rehn.

Any rate hike would be the ECB’s first in nearly a decade and would raise rates from their present lows.

However, if the trigger is pulled too fast, the European economy would suffer as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

If inflation in the eurozone does not moderate, ECB President Christine Lagarde believes there is “a substantial likelihood” that the bank would raise rates before the end of 2022.