By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said in an interview published Monday that it was too early to discuss any specific timing for interest rate hikes, while stressing that the ECB was ready to tighten if necessary to prevent the latest energy shock from feeding into broader inflation.

Villeroy, who heads the Banque de France, told Italy’s La Stampa that “the debate on pre-established dates appears very premature” but that policymakers were “ready to act in this direction if needed.”

He said the task for monetary policy was not to offset the immediate price impact of the Middle East conflict, but to ensure that higher energy costs did not spread more widely through the inflation process.

At the same time, Villeroy argued that the current episode was not a replay of 2022. He described the situation as better than when Ukraine was invaded, and noted that, unlike then, the euro area was not starting from a pre-inflationary environment, with annual euro-area inflation at 1.9% in February 2026.

He also said the ECB’s more adverse inflation scenarios could overstate the eventual impact of the shock because they do not incorporate a monetary-policy response.