Paolo Gentiloni, the EU's economic affairs commissioner, said in an interview that it would be a "big mistake" to tighten eurozone monetary policy too early.
"We are monitoring inflation in the eurozone-we should monitor it very accurately-but don't jump to conclusions," Gentiloni said on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti forum in Chernobio, Italy. "I think that would be a big mistake because the mainstream consensus is that current inflation is still a temporary phenomenon."
As the COVID-19 epidemic is far from over, policymakers in the euro zone and the United States are weighing the risks of inflation and the measures necessary to sustain economic recovery. The European Central Bank will make a decision on monetary policy next Thursday.
Gentiloni said Europe must avoid repeating the "mistake" of "returning to normal prematurely" made during the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Consumer prices in the euro zone rose 3 per cent in August from a year earlier, the highest in a decade and exceeding the ECB's medium-term target of 2 per cent.
Yannis Stournaras, a member of the ECB's governing council, had previously said that "according to most estimates, the recent surge in inflation is due to temporary factors related to many supply-side bottlenecks caused by the epidemic".