By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane said on Wednesday that the ECB cannot yet determine whether the Middle East conflict will be a temporary shock or a more persistent one until its duration becomes clear.

Speaking at the Pre-presidency Irish Financial Issues Conference in Frankfurt, Lane said that “[n]o one really knows how long the situation will last and by the time of next week, I doubt we’re going to have clarity on that.”

“Until we know more how long this war is going to last, it is really hard to know whether this is going to prove to be a temporary phase or a much bigger shock to the European economy,” he said.

The conflict was a “significant shock, but I have not seen anything in the last month to overturn information we had at our March meeting between the baseline and our adverse scenarios,” he said.

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