By David Barwick and Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Fabio Panetta has been the subject of persistent rumors that he aims to succeed ECB President Christine Lagarde when her mandate ends on October 31, 2027. Given clear obstacles to his appointment, we aren’t buying the rumors yet.
19 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn on Friday said policymakers were not pre-committing to any interest rate path after keeping the ECB’s key rate unchanged at 2.0% at Thursday’s meeting.
19 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau on Friday said that the ECB should preserve “maximum optionality” in its policy stance, noting that while risks to inflation remain two-sided, they are “particularly” skewed to the downside.
19 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller on Friday said investors were justified in expecting ECB interest rates to remain unchanged over the coming quarters.
19 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller on Friday offered a familiar-sounding case for patience that, on closer inspection, carries a more pointed time signal than the ECB’s post-forward-guidance orthodoxy usually permits.
19 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – It remains too soon to predict what will happen with European Central Bank monetary policy in the second half of next year, according to Governing Council member Madis Müller on Friday.
19 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Bank of Slovenia Deputy Governor Primož Dolenc on Friday said that the euro area economy had been unexpectedly robust and that financing conditions would continue to provide support.
19 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s December meeting delivered what pre-meeting signaling had engineered: a unanimous hold, a reaffirmation of the “good place” mantra, and an explicit refusal to validate any market narrative about the direction of the next move — despite projections and rhetoric that look more consistent with a tightening bias than with renewed easing.
18 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday said that the Governing Council unanimously agreed to keep all policy options open, stressing that while the ECB remains “in a good place”, its stance should not be seen as frozen.
18 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s Governing Council on Thursday left its key interest rates unchanged and released updated staff projections pointing to stronger growth across the forecast horizon and inflation at 2.0% in 2028.
18 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The list of euro area officials seeking to become European Central Bank vice president when current officeholder Luis de Guindos’ term ends on June 1, 2026, has grown with the addition of a Lithuanian candidate, Econostream understands.
18 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) - Germany is set to scale up its sovereign debt issuance next year, with the Federal Republic now planning to refinance and borrow a total of about €512 billion through auctions of federal securities in 2026 plus three conventional syndications, according to the latest issuance outlook, published by the German Finance Agency on Thursday.
18 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Two days before the European Central Bank’s final monetary policy decision of the year, all meaningful signals point to a unanimous hold, a press conference focused on interpreting the updated projections and managing the risk that a stronger macro outlook is misread as a signal of impending monetary tightening, and a policy outlook that keeps rates at 2% well into 2026 absent a significant shock.
16 December 2025
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The formal launch last week of the race to succeed European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos has had one immediate effect: it has made Portugal’s refusal to commit publicly to Mário Centeno look less like caution and more like strategy.
15 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 11 December 2025 with Saskia Van Dun, Agent of the Dutch State Treasury Agency:
12 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The Dutch State Treasury Agency is “not very concerned” about the impact of the country’s pension reform on the long end of the curve, given mitigating factors and the fact that part of the effect has already been priced in, according to DSTA Agent Saskia van Dun.
12 December 2025
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The Dutch State Treasury Agency plans to raise around €50bn in Dutch State Loans (DSLs) in 2026, while beginning to shorten the target minimum average maturity of its debt portfolio under a newly adopted debt management framework, according to its Outlook 2026, published on Friday.
12 December 2025
ECB Comment Recap: Broad Support for Holding Rates, Some Debate Persists on Response to Inflation Deviations
12 December 2025By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Investment Bank on Thursday said it expects to raise €60 billion in 2026.
11 December 2025
By Marta Vilar - MADRID (Econostream) - European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Thursday that the ECB’s proposed supervisory simplifications would make Additional Tier 1 instruments more akin to equity.
11 December 2025