Exclusive News


ECB Insight: New Strategy to Give Doves Some Breathing Room on Thursday

ECB Insight: New Strategy to Give Doves Some Breathing Room on Thursday

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Thursday’s meeting of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council will be a matter more than anything else of taking a first and important stab at the question of how the new strategy is to shape monetary policy. The answer is less likely to please the hawks, but the doves should take care not to overplay their hand.

20 July 2021
ECB Insight: Visco Still Fighting the Same Battle, Just a Bit Better Equipped

ECB Insight: Visco Still Fighting the Same Battle, Just a Bit Better Equipped

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member and Banca d’Italia Governor Ignazio Visco on Thursday shared his interpretation of the outcome of the ECB’s monetary policy strategy review, an interpretation naturally favouring monetary accommodation but otherwise thoroughly redolent of his traditional diagnoses and prescriptions.

15 July 2021
ECB Insight: Lagarde Abandons Pretence of Big Happy Family

ECB Insight: Lagarde Abandons Pretence of Big Happy Family

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Although both public comments by European Central Bank Governing Council members and the published accounts of their monetary policy meetings had pointed in the last months to a widening rift, ECB President Christine Lagarde has tended to gloss over any discord – until now.

13 July 2021
ECB Insight: Lagarde Prepares to Make the Most of the New Policy Framework

ECB Insight: Lagarde Prepares to Make the Most of the New Policy Framework

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – That the outcome of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy strategy review was a boon to the doves on the Governing Council is clear; comments by ECB President Christine Lagarde over the weekend suggest that the doves could be keen to put their advantage to use at the next opportunity.

12 July 2021
ECB Insight: Meeting Account Reveals Widening Differences on Governing Council

ECB Insight: Meeting Account Reveals Widening Differences on Governing Council

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The account released Friday of the June 9-10 monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council showcased opinions that differed more starkly than at any other recent such gathering, setting the stage for a potentially strident reunion at the next such occasion in ten days.

12 July 2021
ECB Insight: Schnabel a Solitary Contrasting Voice on the Executive Board

ECB Insight: Schnabel a Solitary Contrasting Voice on the Executive Board

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The uniformity with which the European Central Bank Executive Board leans dovish makes member Isabel Schnabel a solitary contrasting voice. Indeed, a closer look at her recent comments side-by-side with those of a dovish colleague reveals considerable differences not far beneath a common surface.

7 July 2021
ECB Insight: Schnabel Acknowledges Possibility of Inflation Recovery

ECB Insight: Schnabel Acknowledges Possibility of Inflation Recovery

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel’s speech over the weekend represents a tentative but important acknowledgment of the potential for euro area inflation to stage the kind of sustainable recovery monetary policymakers had until now seemed to discount.

5 July 2021
ECB Insight: Muted Lagarde Interview Could Presage More ‘Steady Hand’

ECB Insight: Muted Lagarde Interview Could Presage More ‘Steady Hand’

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Perhaps the central message of the interview published Friday with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is that in fact there is no new message in need of conveying at the moment, at least not to financial markets, and thus no reason for the ECB to alter its ‘steady hand’ approach.

2 July 2021
ECB Insight: German Job Market Strength Raises Inflation Stakes

ECB Insight: German Job Market Strength Raises Inflation Stakes

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The strong performance of the euro area’s largest national labour market this month raises the stakes for the European Central Bank, suggesting as it does that the missing piece of the medium-term price stability puzzle could conceivably fall into place after all.

30 June 2021
ECB Insight: Lagarde’s Who-Could-Have-Ever-Imagined Act

ECB Insight: Lagarde’s Who-Could-Have-Ever-Imagined Act

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – What a difference a few weeks make. After suggesting in late May that the strength of the economic recovery was no better than as expected and actually not all that robust, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde now seems to be contemplating the positive evolution with eyes wide and jaw slack.

28 June 2021