ISTANBUL
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said Friday the bank is closely monitoring tariff-related developments and remains ready to use all available tools to maintain price and financial stability.
Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw, Lagarde said she would not comment on monetary policy during this period but emphasized that the ECB is assessing both the potential and actual impacts of tariffs on trade.
Referring to the recent US move to suspend “reciprocal” tariffs, Lagarde said: “The ECB is monitoring and is always ready to use the instruments that it has available and has come up in the past with the adequate instruments and tools that were necessary in order to procure price stability and financial stability.”
She also underlined the ECB Governing Council’s longstanding view that joint financial capacity is essential to absorb economic shocks.
“We are monitoring carefully all market developments and what we have observed recently is a degree of volatility but in Europe and in the euro area in particular we have observed the market infrastructures and the markets including bond markets is functioning in an orderly fashion,” she said.
“We do not target any exchange rate but obviously we monitor and we are attentive to the impact that variation of exchange rates can have on inflation,” she added.
Although the tariffs — ranging from 10% to 50% — were paused for 90 days on Wednesday, Trump increased tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%.
In response, China announced Friday it would stop “paying attention” to trade moves by the Trump administration, according to state media.
“China will lift the additional tariffs on products imported from the US to 125% from 84%, effective from April 12,” the State Council Customs Tariff Commission said.
