ECB Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said market reactions to the central bank’s recent comments were “very high and too high in recent days.”
He told the French National Assembly that ECB has the optionally on the pace on moving between different stages of policy normalization, which starts with end of asset purchases before rate hikes. And, the normalization process would not constitute monetary tightening as it would not go beyond a “neutral orientation”.
“We are exiting a period of exceptionally accommodative monetary policy — that is what it is a question of reducing very gradually and in an adapted way,” Villeroy said.