Barring any significant shocks, Lagarde believes that the ECB will shortly lower rates

Subject to any significant shocks, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde stated on Tuesday that the bank is still planning to lower interest rates in the near future.

Speaking to CNBC's Sara Eisen outside the IMF Spring Meetings, Christine Lagarde stated, "We are observing a disinflationary process that is moving according to our expectations."

"We simply need to have a little more faith in this deflationary process, but if everything goes as planned and there isn't a significant development shock, we are going to reach a point where we will need to reduce the tight monetary policy," Lagarde stated.

Her remarks coincide with the central bank's most definite hint yet that it may begin lowering interest rates at its June meeting.

For the fifth consecutive meeting, the European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates at a record high on Thursday, but it hinted that it would start reducing them soon if inflation starts to decline.

The European Central Bank changed its phrasing and stated that "it would be appropriate" to drop its 4% deposit rate if underlying price pressures and the effects of earlier rate rises were to increase confidence that inflation is returning "in a sustained manner" to its 2% objective.

Following the ECB's downward revision to its medium-term inflation projection, policymakers and economists have focused on June as the potential starting month for rate reductions. Since then, price increases in the eurozone have slowed down more than anticipated in March.

(Sources: cnbc.com)