ECB's de Guindos says asset purchases must end before raising rates

MADRID (Reuters) - European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday that the institution will first need to end asset purchases before interest rates can rise.

"We will look at the (macroeconomic) data, the projections and then we will readjust asset purchases if needed and will see when an interest rate hike can take place," De Guindos told a financial event in Madrid.

Earlier on Wednesday, European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann said that the ECB could begin increasing interest rates before ending its bond purchasing programme, challenging the bank's long-held view on the sequence of its upcoming policy moves.

With inflation hitting fresh record highs in recent months, the ECB recently walked back on a pledge not to raise rates this year but has long maintained that ending bond purchases comes first, before any interest rate increase.

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado and Emma Pinedo; editing by Nathan Allen)

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