Interview with Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, conducted by Pablo Allendesalazar

1 December 2025

Shocks have been building up since the pandemic, but the most dreaded economic scenarios end up not materialising. As a result, the markets keep rising and rising. But the economy is cyclical. Aren’t you worried that one of these scenarios might actually materialise when you least expect it?

There has been a very significant build-up of shocks, but this has not had an impact on European banks, thanks in no small part to the structural reforms that were implemented, including the creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Board. This improved banks’ solvency, as did the new Basel-based regulations. In addition to this, countries like Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain improved their ratings and are more competitive. As a result, although it is growing below its potential of 1-1.5%, the euro area economy is now much more resilient to these kinds…