Eurozone
Enlargement and stability: ECB's new challenges
Enlargement and financial stability are the European Central Bank's (ECB) main new challenges, finds a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Eurozone, Japanese inflation sink
Eurozone annual inflation fell to its lowest level since 1999 in January as data revealed price growth in Japan came to a near standstill in 2008.
Trichet urges markets to drop focus on capital
Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, has urged markets to abandon their fixation with banks' capital ratios, saying that officials were against raising requirements.
Orphanides comments highlight ECB divide
Comments by the governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus on Wednesday underlined the split between members of the European Central Bank's (ECB) Governing Council on whether eurozone interest rates should fall to zero.
Trichet: euro is not dollar's competitor
The euro was not created to compete with the dollar, said Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB).
ECB's Tumpel-Gugerell: crisis impacting economy
The eurozone is experiencing a severe financial crisis that has begun to impact the real economy, said Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, a member of the European Central Bank's executive board.
ECB officials signal reluctance to cut to zero
Two senior officials at the European Central Bank (ECB) have indicated that the Frankfurt-based institution remains reluctant to follow the Federal Reserve's lead in cutting rates to near zero.
Labour markets matter for ECB policy
Disturbances in the wage-bargaining process are a significant contributor to inflation and output fluctuations in euro-area, a paper from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve finds.
ECB's warns against dangers of fiscal excess
The latest European Central Bank Monthly Bulletin calls for governments to spend cautiously.
Denmark's Bernstein on the benefits of the euro
Nils Bernstein, the governor of the National Bank of Denmark, has outlined a number of reasons why Denmark should join the eurozone.
France to ECB: lead charge for derivatives market
Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, has called on the European Central Bank to spur efforts to set up a eurozone-wide financial infrastructure for derivatives, further scuppering US efforts to create a global market for the instruments.
ECB cuts, Trichet signals more could come
The European Central Bank (ECB) has chopped a half point off its key rate and indicated rates could reach a fresh low in the months to come. The news followed confirmation that eurozone inflation sank below the central bank's target in December.
Number of forged euro notes hits record high
The number of counterfeit euro banknotes seized soared by 13% in the second half of 2008, the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Monday.
Trichet defends summer rate hike
The European Central Bank (ECB) was right to raise rates by a quarter point in July as long-term inflation expectations threatened to become unanchored, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, has said.
Competition lowers bank-market spreads on loans
Banks price their loans more in line with the market interest rate in countries with stronger loan market competition, says a new paper from the Bank of Spain.
Balassa-Samuelson revisited
A new paper from the Bank for International Settlements finds that Balassa-Samuelson effects are clearly present in 11 euro accession countries and that these explain around 24% of inflation differentials vis-a-vis the euro area.
ECB sees uncertainty and weak economy in 2009
Two members of the European Central Bank's (ECB) governing council on Tuesday expressed concerns over the outlook for the European economy in 2009.
ECB warns of "downbeat attitude" on SEPA
The European Central Bank has published its sixth progress report on the implementation of the Single Euro Payments Area.
Trichet on the euro
In this interview, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, discusses various developments surrounding the euro.
Explaining interest-rate spreads
This paper uses a time series econometric framework to determine the structural determinants of the spread between the European Overnight Rate and the European Central Bank's Policy Rate from mid-2004 to mid-2006.
Eurosystem continues to shed staff
The number of central bankers in the 16 national central banks that now make up the Eurosystem stands at 46,123, a fall of 17.9% since 2003, reveals the 2009 edition of Central Banking Publications' Central Bank Directory.
Pound could sink to par with euro "within weeks"
The pound will reach parity against the euro on the back of a stream of poor news on the macro front and expectations on interest rates, market participants say.
ECB to keep one-governor, one-vote system for now
The European Central Bank's (ECB) Governing Council has gone back on the voting structure set out in its statute and opted to keep its one-governor, one-vote regime until the number of eurosystem central banks exceeds 18. The central bank also said that…
Demand soars for high-value euro notes
The value of €500 ($715) notes in circulation surged past a quarter of a trillion euros in 2008 to reach €262 billion in November.