The Governing Council today decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. The outlook for energy prices, while highly volatile, currently stands close to the baseline of the June Eurosystem staff projections and well above the levels recorded prior to the conflict in the Middle East. Uncertainty remains high and the full inflationary impact of the energy shock has yet to play out. The Governing Council is therefore closely monitoring the intensity and duration of the shock, as well as its indirect and second-round effects. The Governing Council is committed to setting monetary policy to ensure that ... (full story)

The European Central Bank just decided to keep interest rates unchanged. Through the rearview mirror, this decision clearly makes sense. Headline inflation has actually come down, there are very few signs of knock-on effects from higher energy prices, and the eurozone economy has shown some resilience to the current oil price shock. It’s only survey-based inflation expectations that have gone up and will be a concern for the ECB. Looking ahead, however, the decision of whether to keep interest rates unchanged is not so straightforward. In fact, the latest increase in energy prices has actually pushed the ECB closer ... (full story)