Insights


They Said It - Recent Comments of ECB Governing Council Members

They Said It - Recent Comments of ECB Governing Council Members

Heads up to clients - this is a piece that we regularly feature and update on our website, summarising all recent ECB speak.   We updated it today.  You can view it at this static link.  https://www.econostream-media.com/theysaidit.html


By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The following is an overview of recent comments made by European Central Bank Governing Council members. We include only comments made since the Governing Council meeting of 14 December, but earlier comments can still be seen in versions up to that of 08 December.

15 January 2024
ECB Insight: Lagarde Notes Progress Towards Target While Remaining, as Expected, on Guard

ECB Insight: Lagarde Notes Progress Towards Target While Remaining, as Expected, on Guard

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde performed much as expected on Thursday at the press conference following the Governing Council’s monetary policy meeting, acknowledging progress and not slamming any doors shut as she tempered her previous almost indignant rejection of early rate cuts and focused instead on the need to collect more data.

14 December 2023
ECB Insight: Governing Council More Than Ready to Discuss QT, but Is Lagarde?

ECB Insight: Governing Council More Than Ready to Discuss QT, but Is Lagarde?

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – After kicking the QT can down the road at the European Central Bank Governing Council’s meeting in Athens at the end of October, ECB President Christine Lagarde could finally be ready to broach the subject at the next such gathering one week from today.

7 December 2023
ECB Insight: Kazāks Comments Show Dovish Shift in Thinking

ECB Insight: Kazāks Comments Show Dovish Shift in Thinking

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Barring a dramatic event, one should not expect rhetorical about-faces from a central banker with well-known views; European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel came about as close to that on Tuesday as it gets.

6 December 2023
ECB Insight: Schnabel – From Saul to Paul?

ECB Insight: Schnabel – From Saul to Paul?

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – It’s about time – that was our first thought on reading European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel’s latest contribution to the public discussion of the monetary policy outlook, in which she confessed to having come around to a less hawkish take on matters.

5 December 2023
ECB Insight: Lagarde Kicks the QT Can Down the Road

ECB Insight: Lagarde Kicks the QT Can Down the Road

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – One might wonder what the European Central Bank Governing Council discussed at its latest monetary policy meeting, given the absence of any real decision and the evident reluctance of authorities to broach new topics for which this might have been a sensible occasion.

26 October 2023
ECB Insight: On Hold, Not on Pause, but Still With a Hawkish Bias

ECB Insight: On Hold, Not on Pause, but Still With a Hawkish Bias

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – To describe the outcome of this week’s European Central Bank Governing Council meeting as a pause might inadequately capture the firmness with which policymakers are actually on hold at the moment, meaning that a rate move is virtually excluded.

24 October 2023
ECB Insight: When it Comes to Speeding up QT, the Proponents Outnumber the Opponents

ECB Insight: When it Comes to Speeding up QT, the Proponents Outnumber the Opponents

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – With the European Central Bank Governing Council so clearly intending to abstain from a rate hike at its monetary policy meeting in Athens next week, one might wonder how authorities will fill the void left by this non-decision, given also the absence of updated macroeconomic projections to chew over.

18 October 2023
ECB Insight: De Guindos Attempts to Beat Back Dovish Expectations

ECB Insight: De Guindos Attempts to Beat Back Dovish Expectations

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The European Central Bank must have realised when it chose to hike rates on 14 September that a move of such dubious necessity at this stage of the tightening cycle would inevitably give rise to a need for interviews like that of Vice President Luis de Guindos on Monday.

2 October 2023
ECB Insight: Duration Moves Front and Centre, Even as Lagarde Declines to Confirm Peak Reached

ECB Insight: Duration Moves Front and Centre, Even as Lagarde Declines to Confirm Peak Reached

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday had it both ways, suggesting by any reasonable interpretation that today’s dovish hike decided by the Governing Council could be the end of the tightening cycle, but at the same time stubbornly beating back the idea that the peak of euro area interest rates had definitively been reached.

14 September 2023
ECB Insight: A Pause May Make More Sense, But Updated Forecasts Could Interfere

ECB Insight: A Pause May Make More Sense, But Updated Forecasts Could Interfere

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – In the run-up to the September 2022 monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, we surmised with respect to the outcome that available evidence pointed to a 75bp hike ‘as a bit more probable on the basis of the number of supporters and the feebleness of the pushback.’

13 September 2023