By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Europe’s economy is proving more resilient than widely thought and showing increasing momentum, ECB Governing Council member Martin Kocher said, while stressing that policymakers remained alert to inflation risks.

Kocher, who heads the Austrian National Bank, told Bloomberg Television late Friday: “The European economy is more resilient than many people think it is, showing some momentum now, more momentum.”

On inflation, Kocher said there was “alertness, there is no complacency.”

He pointed in particular to the possibility that second-round effects could emerge in manufacturing and food prices, although he said there was no clear evidence of them so far.

“There’s, of course, second-round effects in manufacturing, in food prices that might appear,” Kocher said. “There is no clear evidence yet, but this will become much clearer during autumn and that will determine the rate path in the future.”

The key question was whether inflationary pressure proved to be “more long-lived,” he said.