Last week's attacks in Paris threaten to hurt an economic recovery in Europe which is already fragile due to the slowdown in emerging economies, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ignazio Visco said on Thursday.
Speaking at a conference in the French capital on long-term investment financing, Visco, who is governor of the Bank of Italy, said the attacks "certainly add their negative weight on confidence and raise the level of uncertainty."
He added that this may make a much-needed recovery in investment in Europe "more difficult to sustain."
On Friday at least 129 people were killed in Paris in attacks for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
After a limited move toward safer assets in the immediate aftermath, financial markets have largely discounted any impact.
However, with soldiers on the streets and security alerts high in many European capitals, few policymakers have yet turned their attention to the possible economic consequences of the threat.
A survey by the Piepoli Institute published in Italian daily La Stampa on Thursday found 50 percent of Italians said they would change their behavior by traveling and going out less to entertainment venues from concerts to stadiums and museums.
Euro zone growth slowed unexpectedly in the third quarter, data showed last week. Weaker foreign trade held back leaders Germany and France, and much of the rest of the bloc underperformed.
That reinforced expectations that the ECB will expand monetary stimulus at its next policy meeting on Dec. 3. .
Visco said investments in Europe, unlike in the United States, were far from fully recovering from their pre-crisis peak in 2007, and they remained particularly weak in Italy and Spain, the largest economies on the euro zone's southern rim.