By David Barwick and Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – We return from the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington yet more convinced that treating a June hike as the inevitable byproduct of an April hold understates the risk that June, too, will prove too early.
By Marta Vilar – WASHINGTON (Econostream) – Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 15 April 2026 and updated on 17 April 2026 with Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank:
By Marta Vilar – WASHINGTON (Econostream) – The European Central Bank does not necessarily have to deliver on financial market expectations of ECB interest rate moves, according to Governing Council member Joachim Nagel.
By Marta Vilar and David Barwick – WASHINGTON (Econostream) - Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 16 April with Alexander Demarco, Governor of the Central Bank of Malta and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank:
By David Barwick and Marta Vilar – WASHINGTON (Econostream) – June, rather than the April 30 policy meeting, would be the more appropriate point for the European Central Bank to judge whether the war-driven energy shock is feeding through into broader inflation, according to ECB Governing Council member Alexander Demarco.
By David Barwick and Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – We return from the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington yet more convinced that treating a June hike as the inevitable byproduct of an April hold understates the risk that June, too, will prove too early.
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Monday said the ECB’s next interest rate decision would depend heavily on whether the war in the Middle East had ended by the April 30 meeting, suggesting that a halt in the fighting would strengthen the case against tightening.
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Alexander Demarco on Saturday said the ECB would be better off waiting for more clarity on the inflation fallout from the Iran war than risking unnecessary economic damage by tightening too soon, signaling that the April 30 meeting may come too early for a rate increase.
By Marta Vilar – WASHINGTON (Econostream) – Econostream’s ECB Tone Meter has reversed its recent hawkish uptick, with the Governing Council still in slightly hawkish territory but less firmly so, while the Executive Board has returned to neutral.
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 20 March 2026 with Petra Wehlert, Head of Capital Markets of KfW.
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – German investment and development bank KfW is likely to issue another euro green bond in Q2 2026, according to KfW’s Head of Capital Markets, Petra Wehlert.
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 13 March 2026 with Adrián Martínez, Vice Director of the Swiss Federal Finance Administration.
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – A new Swiss confederation bond is expected later in 2026 and could be issued around the 2041 maturity, which represents the next gap in Switzerland’s bond profile, according to Adrián Martínez, Vice Director of the Swiss Federal Finance Administration (FFA).
By Marta Vilar – WASHINGTON (Econostream) – Econostream’s ECB Tone Meter has reversed its recent hawkish uptick, with the Governing Council still in slightly hawkish territory but less firmly so, while the Executive Board has returned to neutral.
By David Barwick and Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – We return from the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington yet more convinced that treating a June hike as the inevitable byproduct of an April hold understates the risk that June, too, will prove too early.
By David Barwick – WASHINGTON (Econostream) – With April increasingly looking like a meeting the European Central Bank’s Governing Council is keeping alive out of convention rather than conviction, June now risks being treated as the move that inevitably follows. That may be too simplistic.
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – We argued on March 27 that European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel had given the Governing Council “room to wait.” On April 1 we said April 30 still looked live, but that it sounded “less and less like the ECB is trying to lead markets there,” a point we sharpened further on April 7 and April 8 . President Christine Lagarde’s Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday strongly reinforces that line.
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Our Insights on April 7 , April 1 and March 27 argued that recent European Central Bank Governing Council communication had increasingly come to sound like that of a body dutifully keeping April 30 live while sounding reluctant to move then. Bank of Slovenia Governor Primož Dolenc’s podcast comments on Wednesday reinforce that impression — despite almost certainly having been recorded before the overnight ceasefire between the United States and Iran.