Comments by ECB governing council member, Francois Villeroy de Galhau
- Important to have a rational analysis of the economic impact of the virus
- Duration of virus outbreak is key to economic impact
- The longer the virus impacts the supply-side, the more it will hurt the demand side
- So far, virus is not having a generalised impact on consumer demand
- ECB policy is already very accommodative
That's a very measured response and take on the whole situation but I reckon the ECB also has very little options at its disposal if they really have to be called into action.
Apart from supply chain disruptions, there hasn't been much noticeable impact yet on the euro area economy but we'll see when we get more economic data over the next few weeks.
Also, we'll have to keep an eye on virus developments across Europe in the meantime.
