ECB’s Sleijpen: Still in a Good Place, But Circumstances Can Change

25 November 2025

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olaf Sleijpen on Tuesday said that the ECB remained in a good place, but emphasized that this wouldn’t necessarily last.

Sleijpen, who heads the Dutch National Bank, told the Financial Systems Conference 2025 in Dublin, “Are we still in a good place? Yes, I think we’re still in a good place.”

However, he said, “maybe one should describe it as a conditional good place,” given that circumstances could always change.

The Governing Council’s next monetary policy meeting would be next month and the approach to setting policy remained data-driven and meeting by meeting, he reminded. The new projections would provide guidance as to the outlook for inflation and growth, and on that basis, authorities would “make up our mind again,” he said.

The European economy’s performance “could have been worse,” and earlier this year seemed poised to be, he said. “It has been more resilient than I thought,” he said.

However, potential growth was too low and needed boosting, which was a task for neither monetary policy nor fiscal policy, but rather structural reform, he said.

Sleijpen spoke out for central bank independence, which he said “must never be taken for granted.”

Monetary policy benefitted from this and experience validated it, he said.