By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau on Monday called for continued vigilance on inflation.
In a video posted on LinkedIn, Villeroy, who heads the Banque de France, said that his central bank’s monthly economic survey pointed to continued resilience in the French economy.
“The results were much better than anticipated a month earlier,” he said, highlighting strong performance in the aeronautics, nuclear, and defense sectors, underpinning a forecast of around 0.3% GDP growth in Q1 2026.
“This therefore confirms our forecast of slowed but still positive growth for the French economy in 2026, despite all the uncertainties linked to the conflict in the Middle East,” he said.
However, he warned that the conflict had made business leaders more cautious, with reported uncertainty rising to levels last seen at the onset of the war in Ukraine.
He also flagged supply constraints affecting firms reliant on petroleum-based inputs.
“As a result, a higher number of companies indicate that they will increase their selling prices in the month of April,” he said. “We were at 11% of industrial companies increasing their prices in March, which is roughly the usual rate, but we would be at 23% in the month of April.”
“This is obviously a point to monitor closely,” he said, noting that it reinforced the Banque de France’s assessment of resilient growth alongside inflation that warrants “great vigilance.”
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