By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Fabio Panetta said on Monday that central banks should give greater weight to actual developments in demand, activity and inflation than to estimates of the neutral interest rate as artificial intelligence makes key economic relationships harder to gauge.
21 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s Governing Council turned slightly more hawkish over the past week, according to Econostream’s ECB Tone Meter , but the increase was driven by a sharp shift from Latvijas Banka Governor Mārtiņš Kazāks, masking a softening in the rest of the Council.
21 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said Saturday that another interest-rate increase in October could be warranted if inflation or energy prices deteriorated significantly, while arguing that policymakers should otherwise be prepared to wait for further evidence.
20 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The German government is highly unlikely to nominate Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel to succeed Christine Lagarde as president of the European Central Bank, German financial daily Handelsblatt reported Friday, citing four people familiar with the matter.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s latest Consumer Expectations Survey, released Friday, does not by itself amount to evidence that inflation expectations are becoming de-anchored, but neither will a rise in expectations at every horizon put policymakers at ease as they assess how far the latest inflation shock may propagate.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Europe’s difficulties in generating productivity-enhancing innovation reflect problems in scaling companies, financing them and providing adequate infrastructure rather than a shortage of talent or ideas, European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said Friday.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Public money must remain at the center of the monetary system as payments become increasingly digital and tokenized, European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said Friday, stressing the importance of preserving trust while allowing innovation.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Ülo Kaasik left open the need for further monetary tightening Friday, saying inflation risks remained skewed upward and could require additional rate increases if they materialized.
18 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Friday that interest rates would not move in sync with energy prices, stressing that policymakers would assess the broader impact of the energy shock on inflation, growth and consumption when deciding on future policy moves.
18 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Friday that the ECB was not yet seeing evidence that the latest energy shock was becoming embedded in the wider economy, and that the September rate hike had put policymakers in a good position to assess that risk.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick - FRANKFURT (Econostream) - Following is a transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream with Mārtiņš Kazāks, Governor of Latvijas Banka and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. The interview was finalized on 17 September 2026.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank is likely to have further to go in tightening monetary policy if its September baseline holds, Governing Council member Mārtiņš Kazāks told Econostream, with policy rates ultimately needing to enter restrictive territory.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Vice-President Boris Vujčić said in an interview published Friday that there was value for the time being in maintaining the ECB’s gradual approach to monetary policy tightening, while stressing that future decisions would depend on incoming data.
18 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The chances of another European Central Bank rate increase in October will depend on the information available at the meeting and the outlook through year-end and into 2027, Governing Council member Ante Žigman said Thursday.
17 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Fragmentation rather than insufficient bank capital is the main obstacle to a more effective European banking sector, European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said Thursday, calling for completion of Banking Union and removal of barriers to cross-border activity.
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By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn struck a measured note on Thursday on prospects for further monetary policy tightening, remaining less hawkish than some of his peers — a pattern consistent with his positioning in Econostream’s ECB Tone Meter .
17 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn said on Thursday that there was no evidence so far of second-round inflation effects in the Eurozone, but warned that policymakers could not be certain they would not emerge and needed to remain alert to signs that price pressures were broadening.
17 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn said Thursday that euro area inflation remained driven primarily by energy prices, with no clear evidence so far of broader inflation pressures or second-round effects, although upside risks may be increasing.
17 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said Thursday that every monetary policy meeting remained live amid heightened uncertainty and that upside risks to inflation persisted.
17 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Álvaro Santos Pereira said on Wednesday that inflation was not broadening as quickly as in the previous inflationary episode, while highlighting the recent spike in natural gas prices as a development he was monitoring closely.
16 September 2026