French central bank chief underlines determination to return inflation to target

The chief of France’s monetary authority emphasised the European Central Bank’s “strong determination” to meet its inflation target and underlined that it still had many policy options at its disposal to meet it.

Speaking at the presentation of the French central bank’s financial results for 2015 Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the ECB’s latest policy stimulus was guided by its mandate to return inflation to its 2.0% medium-term target.

He also said the ECB’s priority was to provide financing for the real economy.

By increasing the size of its asset purchase programme and via the introduction of its new Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations Galhau said the monetary authority was “securing the financing of households and businesses. We are protecting them from the tensions coming from market volatility.”