Economic, financial and monetary developmentsOverviewAt its meeting on 18 December 2025, the Governing Council decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. Its updated assessment reconfirmed that inflation should stabilise at the 2% target in the medium term.According to the December 2025 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the eu...
Firms that have faced adverse shocks to their business activity can decide to either shed labour or hold on to their workforce, i.e. “hoard labour”. Labour hoarding occurs when firms are willing to retain their workforce even when facing a weakening of current and/or expected business conditions, for example related to lower demand or reduced profit...
Households' financial investment increased at broadly unchanged annual growth rate of 2.7% in third quarter of 2025Non-financial corporations' financing increased at unchanged annual rate of 1.6%Non-financial corporations' gross operating surplus increased at higher annual rate of 2.6%, compared to 2.4% in previous...
Assets (EUR millions)BalanceDifference compared with last week due to transactionsTotals/sub-totals may not add up, due to rounding1Gold and gold receivables1,279,46202Claims on non-euro area residents denominated in foreign currency504,736−6682.1Receivables from the IMF226,881−152.2Balances with banks and security investments, external loans and other e...
Are independent central banks better at ensuring price stability? A study of 155 central banks over 50 years shows why independence makes a difference. Central banks that are shielded from government control are able to pursue more credible monetary policies and are therefore better at keeping prices stable.Recent political pressure on central banks in som...
In this article, we draw on rich micro-level data from the ECB’s Consumer Expectations Survey (CES), covering the 11 largest euro area countries. Our findings suggest that many consumers would be open to using central bank money in digital form – a digital equivalent of cash. Under normal conditions, this digital equivalent of cash would primarily be use...
Assets (EUR millions)BalanceDifference compared with last week due to transactionsTotals/sub-totals may not add up, due to rounding1Gold and gold receivables1,128,57302Claims on non-euro area residents denominated in foreign currency502,1081,8012.1Receivables from the IMF224,8011422.2Balances with banks and security investments, external loans and other ex...
Jump to the transcript of the questions and answersGood afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference.The Governing Council today decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. Our updated assessment reconfirms that inflation should stabilise at our two per cent target in the medium term.The new Eurosystem staff proje...
Governing Council endorses recommendations of High-Level Task Force on Simplification, which include:reducing the number of elements in the risk-weighted and leverage ratio frameworkintroducing a materially simpler prudential regime for smaller banks, which expands on the existing EU regimeintroducing a European governance mechanism that takes a holistic v...
1. Review of financial, economic and monetary developments and policy optionsFinancial market developmentsMs Schnabel started her presentation by noting that since the Governing Council’s previous monetary policy meeting on 10-11 September 2025, financial markets had once again shown resilience to shocks. The risk appetite of investors in the euro area st...
