"If you look at Germany, where actually the economy is doing better than then was feared, it's not a foregone conclusion that we will get a recession," Knot told a conference in Paris.

"We will get weaker growth, that's for sure," Knot, an outspoken policy hawk, said. "But we also need weaker growth to bring inflation back to target."

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, Editing by William Maclean)