By David Barwick – VILNIUS (Econostream) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Monday said that the ECB had nearly reached its price-stability target and that confidence in achieving this goal had increased.
16 December 2024
By David Barwick – VILNIUS (Econostream) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Monday said that the rate cut decided by the ECB Governing Council last week would not be the last in a context in which the risks to inflation had changed for the better.
16 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf on Friday said that while willing to continue cutting interest rates, he preferred not to do so by taking large steps.
13 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank is likely to cut interest rates in steps to 2.5% by the start of spring 2025 if its central scenario continues to materialise, according to ECB Governing Council member Gaston Reinesch on Friday.
13 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Mārtiņš Kazāks said on Friday that the neutral rate was closer to 2% than 3% and that he would be open to a larger rate cut if warranted.
13 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Boštjan Vasle on Friday said that declining services inflation strengthened the confidence in a durable restoration of price stability.
13 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel on Friday said that German inflation would gradually return to the level of 2%, but only starting in 2026.
13 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member José Luis Escrivá said on Friday that the ECB would probably lower rates further in upcoming meetings.
13 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller said on Friday that ECB interest rates could still be regarded as restrictive, given economic circumstances.
13 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy said on Friday that the Governing Council considered market expectations of more rate cuts as appropriate.
13 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday said that the ECB was not going to anticipate what its next move would be, but observed that some uncertainty would fade in a few months’ time.
12 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – As in October, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde adhered again on Thursday to the ECB’s data-driven, meeting-by-meeting approach to setting monetary policy. Still, the scepticism with which she responded at the press conference to a question about a potential 50bp cut next month was hard to overlook.
12 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s Governing Council on Thursday decided to cut its key interest rates by 25bp, as widely expected by markets and analysts.
12 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – At Econostream we’ve been nothing if not consistent for almost seven weeks about playing down expectations that the European Central Bank Governing Council would cut by 50bp in December. Already on 18 October we contended that markets were indulging in wishful thinking.
10 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel on Wednesday said that he had no problem easing monetary policy further next week, but that the process should be gradual.
4 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday that the ECB was not yet at the point at which it could shift its policy stance to one more forward-looking as rates were still restrictive.
4 December 2024
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn said on Wednesday regarding the size of December's rate cut that the ECB should preserve sufficient room to react.
4 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Wednesday gave no hint as to next week’s monetary policy decision, reiterating the ECB’s refusal to pre-commit and the expectation that inflation would subside to the ECB’s 2% target sometime next year.
4 December 2024
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank Governing Council should have no problem coming to a decision next week to cut rates by 25bp, ECB Governing Council member Boris Vujčić said Wednesday.
4 December 2024
By David Barwick and Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Although one large investment bank recently saw fit to change its call for the European Central Bank Governing Council’s 12 December monetary policy meeting from 25bp to 50bp, at Econostream we see little reason to doubt our expectation that the smaller option will prevail next week.
4 December 2024