Member of the European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council and Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau described the US decision to pause tariff hikes for 90 days as a "less bad" development and "a start of economic reason." Speaking Thursday on France Inter, he noted it was still far from good news, pointing to two persistent "bad ingredients" in Washington's economic strategy.
The first, he said, is unpredictability, which remains a major threat to both confidence and growth in the US. The second is protectionism, which he argued ultimately hurts American consumers by raising prices and weighs more heavily on US growth than on Europe's.
Villeroy added that while France faces a slowdown, there is no sign of a recession, and he urged not to overemphasize the country's deficit figures amid broader global changes.
