ECB's Nagel says inflation not falling at desired pace

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Inflation in the euro zone is not falling "at the desired pace" and it is therefore too early to say whether or not the European Central Bank will need to raise interest rates further, ECB policymaker Joachim Nagel said on Thursday.

He was joining a number of policymakers seeking to temper market bets on an end to ECB efforts to curb inflation since the central bank for the euro zone signalled last week that its 10th straight rate hike was likely to be its last.

"Have we reached the plateau (in interest rates)? That is not yet clear," Nagel, president of Germany's Bundesbank, told a banking conference. "The inflation rate in the euro zone is also not moving toward 2% at the desired pace... (and) core inflation remains stubbornly high and is expected to fall only gradually."

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; editing by Mark Heinrich)