Central Bank


ECB Insight: Wunsch Botches His Own Defense of the June Hike

ECB Insight: Wunsch Botches His Own Defense of the June Hike

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Pierre Wunsch has offered a surprisingly strong account of why the European Central Bank might not have needed to raise rates last week, coupled with a weaker defense of why it nonetheless did.

19 June 2026
ECB’s Elderson: ECB to Warn Banks About AI-Driven Cyber Risks

ECB’s Elderson: ECB to Warn Banks About AI-Driven Cyber Risks

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank will send banks a “dear CEO letter” urging them to prepare proactively for increasingly powerful cyberattacks enabled by frontier artificial intelligence models, ECB Executive Board member Frank Elderson said Friday.

19 June 2026
ECB’s Wunsch: More Bad Inflation Data Could Warrant Second Hike

ECB’s Wunsch: More Bad Inflation Data Could Warrant Second Hike

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Pierre Wunsch would support another 25bp rate hike if inflation data continued to disappoint, but saw no need to move quickly if the evidence remained ambiguous.

19 June 2026
ECB's Escrivá Urges Caution on US-Iran Deal, Says ECB Must Remain "Agile"

ECB's Escrivá Urges Caution on US-Iran Deal, Says ECB Must Remain "Agile"

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member José Luis Escrivá said on Thursday that policymakers should remain cautious about the implications of the recent US-Iran agreement, noting the need for the ECB to remain "particularly agile" in responding to evolving inflation risks.

18 June 2026
ECB Insight: The Missing Policy Choices Behind Lagarde’s “Robust” Rate Hike

ECB Insight: The Missing Policy Choices Behind Lagarde’s “Robust” Rate Hike

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The most important statement at last week’s European Central Bank press conference was President Christine Lagarde’s repeated assertion that the decision to raise interest rates by 25bp was “robust across all scenarios,” a justification that went considerably further than merely invoking the ECB’s baseline forecast.

18 June 2026
ECB’s Šimkus: Another Rate Hike More Likely Than Not

ECB’s Šimkus: Another Rate Hike More Likely Than Not

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gediminas Šimkus said Wednesday that the ECB’s June 11 rate hike was too small to settle the euro area’s inflation issue and that at least one further increase was more likely than not.

17 June 2026