European Central Bank: How Christine Lagarde could react to the government crisis in France

The inflation rate in the eurozone was 2.1 percent in August, close to the ECB's medium-term inflation target of 2 percent. The core inflation rate was 2.3 percent. The wave of inflation following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine was thus broken. In addition, uncertainty regarding the trade conflict with the United States eased somewhat.

After seven consecutive interest rate cuts, the central bank had already paused in July. At the time, ECB President Christine Lagarde (69) emphasized the high degree of uncertainty. The previous agreement between the EU and the US had been in line with the ECB's expectations. Lagarde recently stated that the agreement was "well below the worst-case scenario." As recently as spring 2024, the interest rate banks received for parking money with the ECB was twice as high, at 4.0 percent.