By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s Governing Council and Executive Board turned markedly less hawkish over the past week, according to Econostream’s ECB Tone Meter, as policymakers continued to retain a tightening bias but showed little urgency to raise rates again.
28 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Álvaro Santos Pereira said on Monday that one of the main risks facing the ECB in the coming months is high natural gas prices.
28 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Vice-President Boris Vujčić said Friday that persistent pressure on refined energy products, particularly diesel, could continue feeding into inflation, with lost refining capacity unlikely to return in the foreseeable future.
25 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Emmanuel Moulin on Friday described the ECB's recent interest rate increases as “very moderate,” arguing that real rates remained low, while warning that France needed to address its fiscal problems rather than look to the ECB for a solution.
25 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said Thursday that the euro area economy had remained resilient despite the energy shock caused by the Middle East conflict, supported by a strong labor market, external demand and increased defense and infrastructure spending.
24 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said the central bank had achieved a "soft landing" before the latest Middle East shock, bringing inflation down from around 11% to below 2%.
24 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olaf Sleijpen said on Thursday the euro area economy had proved considerably more resilient than expected, while warning that risks to the growth outlook remained tilted to the downside and financial stability risks were elevated.
24 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel is set to become the International Monetary Fund’s next Financial Counsellor and Director of its Monetary and Capital Markets Department from January 4, 2027, the IMF said Thursday.
24 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Dimitar Radev said Thursday that vigilance should carry slightly greater weight than patience following the September rate hike but stressed that this did not amount to a call for automatic further tightening.
24 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gediminas Šimkus said Thursday that Lithuanian inflation was set to exceed 6% by year-end, with energy accounting for more than a third of price growth and prolonged high fuel costs increasingly weighing on the economy.
24 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said on Thursday that the energy price shock was proving to be “much more persistent” than initially expected.
24 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Martin Kocher on Thursday said it would be preferable to bring inflation back to 2% without further interest rate increases, while stressing that policymakers would reassess the situation at every meeting amid high uncertainty and the Middle East-driven price shock.
24 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane’s extensive and insightful discussion Wednesday of the euro area outlook offered a considerably more dovish assessment than current market pricing might suggest, strengthening the case for December rather than October as the more likely timing of any next rate increase.
24 September 2026
By David Barwick – GENEVA (Econostream) – Following are key comments by European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane from a presentation and question-and-answer session in Geneva on Wednesday. The comments have been lightly edited for clarity.
23 September 2026
By David Barwick – GENEVA (Econostream) – European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane said Wednesday that coming interest-rate decisions could prove less straightforward than September’s 25bp hike, as policymakers weigh a more persistent energy shock against limited second-round effects, stronger-than-expected economic activity and tightening financial conditions.
23 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Wednesday that he supports Bank for International Settlements General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos as a candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde as president of the European Central Bank.
23 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Ante Žigman said Wednesday that any further increase in interest rates would depend mainly on the inflation outlook and on energy and refined-product prices, stressing the need to prevent the latest price shock from becoming entrenched.
23 September 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf said Wednesday that additional monetary policy action would be needed if persistently high energy prices generated wider inflation pressures, while indicating that this was not happening so far.
23 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – LONDON (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said Tuesday he was “not so concerned” about a strong wage response to the current inflation shock, as seen during the previous inflationary episode, but cautioned that the longer the shock persisted, the greater the risk was of second-round effects.
22 September 2026
By Marta Vilar – LONDON (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said on Tuesday that Europe has the economic strength to withstand geoeconomic fragmentation, but needs to deepen its capital markets and reduce strategic dependencies to make better use of its potential.
22 September 2026