FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank still sees a recent rise in euro zone inflation to above its 2 percent target as temporary and expects price pressures to ease next year, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. She acknowledged the decline would take longer than ECB had initially expected but said favourable financing conditions created by its ultra-easy policy were still essential for the euro zone economy to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. “We see inflation rising further in the near term but then declining next year,” Lagarde told a news conference after the ECB left policy on hold. She identified the main drivers of inflation as energy prices, snarled supply chains as consumer demand recovers, and base effects, especially from last year’s German value-added tax cut, the impact of which should drop out of data in January. Euro zone inflation hit 3.4 percent last month and is seen rising to …