ECB’s Villeroy: Good Position Does Not Mean ‘Comfortable’ or ‘Fixed’

5 November 2025

By Marta Vilar – PARIS (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Wednesday that while the ECB was in a good position, this did not make it permanent.

In a panel discussion at the Monetary Policy Conference in Paris, organized by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Banque de France, which he heads, Villeroy said that the fight against inflation had been a “success” that he attributed to a “mix of luck and skill,” as well as the reversal of the commodity price surge.

He cautioned, however, that there was “no room for complacency,” emphasizing that being in a good position should not be confused with being “comfortable” or “fixed.”

During the Q&A session, when asked whether the ECB might be reverting to the “close but below 2%” inflation regime given potential undershoots across the projection horizon, Villeroy dismissed that view as “completely wrong,” stressing that nothing justified returning to that framework.

“We said in our strategy review in 2021 that our aim is symmetric; … in 2025 we confirmed the symmetric aims, that our reaction function is symmetric. Full stop,” he said.