PARIS (Reuters) – European governments need to wind down measures used to soften the blow of the energy price shock last year in order to help the European Central Bank fight inflation, French ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday.
Villeroy, who is also the head of the French central bank, said that the European Central Bank could not alone be expected to bring inflation and governments had a role to play too.
“Fiscal policies should adjust and consolidate, first and foremost scrapping energy subsidies as the European Commission rightly advocated yesterday,” Villeroy told a financial conference in Paris.
The European Commission recommended on Wednesday that all EU governments end support measures for energy prices by the end of this year to keep public finances in check and stay in line with proposed new fiscal rules in 2024.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Toby Chopra)
