ECB member says stimulus could come before Lagarde

The governor of the French central bank has not ruled out other stimulus measures for the euro zone as early as this summer, before the arrival of Christine Lagarde to the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB) .

Mario Draghi, the current president, laid the groundwork for his successor in a recent speech in which he paved the way for further stimulus measures in the eurozone, which could take the form of another large-scale bond purchase program.

Many market watchers saw this as Draghi linked his successor – who was to be Lagarde in November – to his policy of easy monetary policy. But François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the French central bank and a member of the ECB's governing council, said a stimulus package could be launched before that, if necessary.

"If we talk about monetary policy, we will have several upcoming government councils, including with Mario Draghi, next month, and if necessary, there must be no doubt about our determination to act and our ability to act", did he declare. Annette Weisbach, of CNBC, Saturday, at an economic conference in Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France.

"We look at the markets, but we do not depend on them, we depend on the data, and if we look at the economic signals, the slowdown continues, but there are also significant increases in wages …" Important jobs on both sides of the Atlantic So wait for our next board of directors, and there are more to come, to evaluate the data, then to make a decision. "

Asked about the likelihood that other stimulus packages will be announced in December, when the central bank will release new economic projections, he reiterated that there had been many meetings before.

"As I said, several boards of governors are coming," he said, without ruling out any action at the ECB meeting this month. He added that the central bank had not yet decided which monetary policy tools could be used, calling for a pragmatic approach.

"Many things are possible but nothing is decided today, let's be pragmatic at our next (ECB) meetings," he said.

The ECB was looking to end its era of monetary easing at the end of 2018, but trade uncertainties have caused a turnaround on the part of many central banks around the world. The central bank of the euro area has made liquidity provisions available to its banks and has paved the way for further stimulus measures.