News

ECB Insight: Option of Pause Takes Early Lead, Member-by-Member Review of Governing Council Suggests

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – The option of a pause at the 14 September meeting of the European Central Bank Governing Council appears to enjoy an early lead versus the lone alternative of yet another hike, but with most Council members not having pronounced themselves since last Thursday’s decision, it is too soon to call an outcome that will depend to a large extent on data available only when the time comes.

1 August 2023

They Said It - Recent Comments of ECB Governing Council Members

31 July 2023

ECB’s Stournaras: ‘We Should Not Continue Raising Interest Rates’

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on reiterated his opposition to further increases in euro area official interest rates.

31 July 2023

ECB Could Continue With Rate Hikes After Pause, Lagarde Says

By Xavier D’Arcy – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – A decision by the European Central Bank not to raise interest rates would not necessarily signify the end of its rate hike cycle, President Christine Lagarde said on Sunday.

30 July 2023

ECB Hawk-Dove Ranking: Knot Ranked Notably Less Hawkish, Rehn Replaced by Välimäki

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Econostream has updated our hawk-dove ranking to take into account the passage of the last monetary policy meeting, so that the columns indicating voting status include only future meetings – as of today, 14 September, 26 October and 14 December.

28 July 2023

ECB’s Müller: Situation Has Changed, With Next Decisions No Longer So Obvious

By David Barwick – LJUBLJANA (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Müller on Friday said that the ECB was confronting a changed situation in which the next monetary policy decisions were not as clear as they had been previously.

28 July 2023

ECB’s Kažimír: Mission Still Not Accomplished, Should Continue With Firm Step

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Peter Kažimír on Friday said that the ECB was not done after yesterday’s 25bp hike and that it should continue with a ‘firm step’ towards price stability.

28 July 2023

ECB’s Stournaras: Can Hardly See the Case for September Rate Hike

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras on Friday said that it was difficult to imagine that the ECB would hike rates in September.

28 July 2023

ECB’s Villeroy: Perseverence Now the Main Key Virtue, Given Transmission Lag

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau on Friday said that with monetary policy transmission requiring time, perseverance had become the principal virtue to govern coming policy decisions.

28 July 2023

ECB Brief: Lagarde Did Not Say That the ECB Had No More Ground to Cover

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Prone though she may be to missteps, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde got through Thursday’s post-Governing Council meeting press conference without any obvious and serious blunders, and in particular was merely misinterpreted by some to have said that the ECB had no more ground to cover.

28 July 2023

ECB’s Vasle: Strong Job Markets Despite Slower Economy a ‘Key Risk’ for Core Inflation

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Boštjan Vasle on Friday said that the stubbornly robust labour market posed a threat to core inflation.

28 July 2023

Eurozone Inflation ‘Will Become Weaker, but It Is Not Yet Defeated’, ECB's Nagel Says

By Xavier D’Arcy – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said on Friday that the fight against high inflation was not yet over in the Eurozone.

28 July 2023

ECB Insight: Lagarde Transitions to Data-Dependent ‘Open Mind’, Introduces Possibility of Pause

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Thursday left the evolution of monetary policy in the coming months entirely up to incoming data, except to make clear that a cut was not one of the options that stood a chance of being considered.

27 July 2023

ECB Insight: Amid Economic Weakness and Sagging Credit Demand, ECB to Favour Data-Dependence Over Hawkishness

By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Yet again, the principal outcome of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council meeting this Thursday seems beyond dispute, given the lack of any obviously adequate reason to backtrack from the 25bp rate hike consistently signalled over the last weeks. It thus once more comes down to how the ECB frames its attitude toward policy decisions ahead.

25 July 2023

ECB Records Biggest Fall in Business Credit Demand on Record as Rate Hikes Hit Bank Lending

By Xavier D’Arcy – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – In a further sign of rate hikes feeding through to the Eurozone economy, the European Central Bank’s latest Bank Lending Survey, released on Tuesday, showed demand for credit continuing to plummet.

25 July 2023

They Said It - Recent Comments of ECB Governing Council Members

By David Barwick and Xavier D’Arcy – 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 15 June, but earlier comments can still be seen in versions up to that of 9 June .

24 July 2023

They Said It - Recent Comments of ECB Governing Council Members

19 July 2023

Practically Everyone at ECB Expects an Increase of 25BP Next Week, Nagel Says

By Xavier D’Arcy – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – A 25bp hike at next week’s European Central Bank meeting is a near certainty, ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel said on Wednesday.

19 July 2023

TRANSCRIPT: Interview with ECB Governing Council member Šimkus on 17 July 2023

By David Barwick – VILNIUS (Econostream) - Following is the full transcript of the interview conducted by Econostream on 17 July with Gediminas Šimkus, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania and member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank:

19 July 2023

Exclusive: ECB’s Šimkus: Could Get Back to Discussion of Whether to Do More on QT Early Next Year

By David Barwick – VILNIUS (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Gediminas Šimkus on Monday said that pending a careful examination of all pertinent factors, the ECB might want to consider the possibility early next year of picking up the pace of quantitative tightening with respect to its asset purchase programme (APP).

19 July 2023