ECB can aim for soft landing for economy – Villeroy

MARRAKECH, Morocco  -The European Central Bank should aim to engineer a “soft landing” for the euro zone’s economy, as long as it is confident that inflation will keep falling towards its 2 percent goal, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday.

The French central bank governor repeated his view that the ECB should keep its key interest rate at its current level – the highest in its 25-year history – for as long as necessary.

But he also opened the door to taking growth into consideration as a “secondary mandate”.

“If we can follow a monetary path which ensures a soft landing… it’s a much better route for our fellow citizens,” he told a forum in Marrakech.

He said patience in the ECB’s fight against inflation was more important than “activism”, and the risk of tightening policy too much was just as big of doing too little.