ECB’s Stournaras: Uncertainty on the Rise

23 December 2024

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Monday said that uncertainty had increased and that the application of tariffs by the US to European goods threatened to reduce growth here.

In an interview with Greek radio station SKAI 100.3 radio station, Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, said that ‘for us at the European Central Bank, uncertainty has begun to arise about what kind of global economy we will have.’

In particular, he said, that referred to the impact of US policy on Europe.

Asked if he feared US tariff hikes, he replied, ‘Yes, of course.’ An across-the-board increase of 10% would shave one percentage point off of European GDP growth, approximately all the growth anticipated for Europe in 2025, he said.

‘The first countermeasure is that Europe should agree among itself exactly what it wants, at the Summit of heads of state, and in my humble opinion a negotiator should be appointed, as was done in Brexit’, he suggested.