ECB’s Holzmann: ‘International Role of the Euro Can Be Expected to Grow’

22 May 2025

ECB’s Holzmann: ‘International Role of the Euro Can Be Expected to Grow’
Robert Holzmann, governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, and Pierre Wunsch, governor of the National Bank of Belgium, at the European Central Bank Governing Council meeting in Ljubljana on October 16, 2024. Photo by Andrej Hanžekovič/ECB.

By David Barwick – VIENNA (Econostream) – The euro’s importance as a global currency is set to increase, according to European Central Bank Governing Council member Robert Holzmann on Thursday.

In remarks opening the Annual Economics Conference of the Austrian National Bank, which he heads, Holzmann said with an eye towards unpredictable US intentions under President Donald Trump, ‘Frequent shifts in trade policy have fuelled economic uncertainty, undermining stability and resulting in tangible losses for all parties involved.’

Moreover, the new unreliability of the US ‘puts significant additional strain on already fragile global markets, making economic forecasts more complex and policy decisions even more challenging in an already uncertain environment’, he said.

‘[G]iven this heightened uncertainty, the international role of the euro can be expected to grow’, he said, pointing to ‘erratic tariff decisions and threats to the Federal Reserve’ that have led investors to reduce their holdings of US assets.

Central banks were facing ‘new layers of complexity in maintaining price stability’ and ‘an environment that is more intricate than ever before’, he said.