Interview with Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, conducted by Wouter van Bergen and Martin Visser

20 December 2024

What has kept you awake over the past year?

Looking back at recent times, I would say that my worst nightmare was that a cyber attack would wreak havoc in the payments system. We would have a complicated situation on our hands that would be very difficult to resolve and would have serious consequences for all of us.

And what do you expect will keep you awake next year?

For the future, I’m more concerned about trade policy and the potential fragmentation of the global economy. The new US administration has announced far-reaching import tariffs. If they materialise, a wholly new situation could arise, which would go completely against the lessons from the 1930s and the path we have chosen since the end of the Second World War.

Trump has introduced import tariffs before. What is different this time?

It’s not only the import tariffs imposed by the United States…