ECB’s Makhlouf: Agility Means Being Sensitive to Consequences of Large Shocks

4 July 2025

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf on Friday said that being agile meant being sensitive to the ramifications of major shocks.

In a blog post on the website of the Central Bank of Ireland, which he heads, Makhlouf said, ‘An important overall learning point is that we on the Governing Council have been forced to think harder about how we deal with uncertainty.’

The focus on ‘agility’ in the ECB’s just-concluded strategy assessment was in part a reaction to high uncertainty, he said.

Agility means ‘to be sensitive at all times to the consequences of large shocks’, he explained.

‘There may be times, for example, when the shocks that hit us are sufficiently large, that they change the typical relationships between economic variables’, he continued. ‘During such times, we must act quickly, and we may also have to revise our outlook and policies quickly.’