The euro area economy and inflationary dynamics are “still far away from a normal post-pandemic situation,” as supply-side shocks still resonate, the European Central Bank’s Director General for Economics at the Oscar Arce told MNI.

“We are still seeing the persistent effects of the chain of shocks. It is not only the pandemic but it is the pandemic plus the energy crisis the geopolitical uncertainty created by the war in Ukraine but also by the Middle East,” Arce told an MNI podcast, in which he discussed an ECB Occasional Paper on post-pandemic inflation.