ECB’s Centeno: Impact of Tariffs on Prices ‘Ambiguous’, Economy to Contract

9 April 2025

ECB’s Centeno: Impact of Tariffs on Prices ‘Ambiguous’, Economy to Contract
Mário Centeno, governor of the Banco de Portugal, at the ECB’s Governing Council meeting in Ljubljana on October 17, 2024. Photo by Adrian Petty/ECB.

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Mário Centeno said on Wednesday that US tariffs would cause a ‘contraction of the economy’, while the impact on prices would be ‘ambiguous’. 

Speaking at the conference XXV Jornadas A.N.D.A.R., Centeno, who heads the Banco de Portugal, said, ‘Tariffs are a tax and a barrier to the economy, which sets aside five centuries of global economic development.'

The targeted countries’ first response would be inefficient as they would react ‘with new restrictions’, he said.

European and Portuguese goods that were exported to the US would now be redirected to other markets like the Chinese, he said.

‘This means that, if we exclude the US, the rest of the world has become more competitive’, he said.

 

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