ECB’s Makhlouf: Shouldn’t Assume Inflation Objective Durably Achieved

25 November 2025

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf on Tuesday warned against thinking that the ECB had lastingly achieved its inflation target.

Makhlouf, who heads the Central Bank of Ireland, told the Financial Systems Conference 2025 in Dublin that he agreed that “we’re in a good place right now” as far as inflation was concerned.

“I do worry a bit about where services inflation sits,” he nonetheless added. “I do worry a bit about what I see happening to food inflation. But expectations appear to be pretty well grounded. People understand that we are absolutely committed to delivering on our 2% target in the medium term.”

Still, “it would be a mistake to conclude that our inflation target has been achieved, full stop,” he said. There were still risks that needed watching, he said.

According to Makhlouf, “[o]ne of the characteristics of this whole year—at least since the 20th of January—has been uncertainty and unpredictability,” and this was unlikely to cease being so.

“I mean, I think it's fair to say there's less uncertainty now than there was perhaps back in April,” he said, but “we’re still in a period where businesses are still working out what their supply chains should look like in the future.”