"There's no real consensus at the moment about the increase in interest rates among economic actors," Jeremie Delecourt, chief operating officer at French private equity fund Ardian, told Reuters. In the euro zone, the peak is near after a combined 4 percentage points rise in the past year, ECB policymaker and French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on a panel at the conference. But he also said that rates would be left high for as long as necessary to ensure that inflation is headed back to the European Central Bank's 2% target by 2025. The ECB raised interest rates to their highest level in 22 years last month and promised another hike this month, with possibly another in September. "I see quite a bit of optimism in the short term, but I see a lot of downside risks if there is a policy mistake, especially from the central banks," she added.

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Persons: Jeremie Delecourt, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Jean, Louis Girodolle, Lazard, Mario Draghi's, Somersan Coqui, Daniel Barneix, Barneix, Veronika Grimm, Leigh Thomas, Alexander Smith Organizations: Reuters, ECB policymaker, Central, ECB, Atlantic, Allianz Trade, Thomson Locations: PROVENCE, France, United States, Europe, Aix, Provence