By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olaf Sleijpen said on Friday that the economy was holding up well but cited trade tensions and geopolitical conflicts as risks.
6 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller on Friday said that interest rates are at an “appropriate level” given the outlook, with the euro area economy growing moderately and inflation expected to stabilize around 2%.
6 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Martins Kazāks on Friday said that monetary policy remains “in a good place” and that only a “sizeable and pacey” euro appreciation would be likely to warrant a policy response, as uncertainty stays high.
6 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Olli Rehn on Friday warned that the balance of risks now includes a meaningful chance that euro area inflation comes in below forecast, citing softer underlying price pressures, easing wage momentum and disinflationary forces from the exchange rate and trade.
6 February 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday that downside risks to inflation were “probably more significant” than upside risks, and that developments on the exchange rate and the rerouting of Chinese exports could have a “pretty strong disinflationary effect.”
6 February 2026
By David Barwick – VIENNA (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Martin Kocher on Friday said that the ECB would continue to keep an eye on the evolution of the US dollar and the euro but suggested that relevant developments to date had not been problematic and to a degree could actually be viewed positively.
6 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Bank of Slovenia Acting Governor Primož Dolenc on Friday said the euro area economy continued to expand while inflation stayed close to the ECB’s 2% target.
6 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – An interesting thing about European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s press conference on Thursday was her increasingly obvious discomfort with her own creation. The “good place” mantra is being eased out of the ECB’s active vocabulary—not by contradiction, which would require quite some explaining, but by an unmistakable, ongoing distancing.
6 February 2026
By Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that risks to the outlook remained broadly balanced and there was nothing materially altering the ECB’s baseline scenario.
5 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – With the rate decision a foregone conclusion, Thursday’s European Central Bank press conference was mostly a test of whether President Christine Lagarde would let a turbulent couple of weeks pull the ECB’s messaging off its well-worn neutral track. She did not.
5 February 2026
By Marta Vilar – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s Governing Council on Thursday left its key interest rates unchanged and said that the Eurozone economy was still resilient despite the “challenging” situation.
5 February 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – With rates to remain unchanged, Thursday’s press conference is mainly a test of message discipline. Recent news has been the kind that some observers treat as inviting reactive messaging, but for months the European Central Bank has kept its tone firmly neutral, and that is the posture we expect again this week.
3 February 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The European Central Bank’s latest Bank Lending Survey (BLS), released on Tuesday, showed that banks tightened credit standards for firms and consumer lending in Q4 2025, while reporting a slight net easing of standards for household mortgages.
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By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – The ECB’s tone in our ECB Tone Meter moved slightly dovish this week, both for the Governing Council overall and for the Executive Board, as the quiet period began on Thursday. The former settled at 0.00, effectively neutral, while the latter eased to +0.05, remaining marginally positive and therefore still slightly hawkish.
30 January 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Following is a collection of views expressed by ECB Governing Council members on various topics of high relevance related to next week’s meeting and the further evolution of monetary policy:
29 January 2026
By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – A rapid euro climb toward the psychologically loaded $1.20 area has reopened a recurring question: when does an exchange rate move become a monetary policy problem?
29 January 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said on Wednesday that interest rates were at a “good place” and were expected to remain at the same levels for a long period.
28 January 2026
By David Barwick – VILNIUS (Econostream) – Following is the transcript of a brief chat on Wednesday, 28 January 2026 with European Central Bank Governing Council member Gediminas Šimkus, chairman of the Bank of Lithuania:
28 January 2026
By David Barwick – VILNIUS (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gediminas Šimkus on Wednesday rejected calls to react too quickly to the strengthening of the euro versus the dollar.
28 January 2026
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Wednesday that the ECB was paying close attention to the euro’s appreciation against the US dollar and its potential impact on inflation.
28 January 2026