ECB’s Stournaras: “Unique Opportunity for the Euro to Strengthen its International Role”

15 October 2025

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Wednesday reiterated his view that the euro had a chance to become more important globally.

In an interview with Greek radio station Parapolitika 90.1, Stournaras, who heads the Bank of Greece, said that the world had been in a “global upheaval” that started with the pandemic and continued with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“And now we have an unconventional economic policy from the United States with the imposition of tariffs,” he said. “This overturns the whole global status quo of world trade, which mainly benefited America.”

US government attacks on its central bank’s independence, “which until now has been the basis of the strength of the US economy and the dollar, are causing a stir, and a portion that was in dollars is now invested in gold and the euro,” he said.

Europe now had “a unique opportunity for the euro to strengthen its international role,” he said.

According to Stournaras, global warming was having a “big impact” on food prices.

“Coffee for example, corn, raw materials,” he said. “I mean raw materials in food. All of this is also affected by climate change. In Latin America, for example.”

Stournaras criticized internal European barriers to trade.

“We do not call them tariffs, but when there are obstacles to intra-community trade, i.e. the movement of goods and services is not free, it is as if we have tariffs, and in fact they are very high, 44% in goods, over 100% in services,” he said. “So, there is a lot of room for prices to be reduced by actions taken by Europe itself.”

Asked whether the Greek government would renew his mandate next year, Stournaras declined to confirm this before the General Meeting of the Bank of Greece. “My term of office still expires in June 2026, so it's too early to talk about it today,” he said.