Eurozone
A setback for European payments
Terry Dirienzo, product and marketing director for Experian Payments, a consultancy, bemoans a French suspension of work on the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa).
Demand for eurozone loans shrinks
Demand for loans from both businesses and households across the euro area fell sharply in the fourth quarter, the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest credit conditions survey indicated.
ECB: corporate credit weakening
Corporate credit is significantly weakening, said Jean-Claude Trichet and Lucas Papademos, the president and the vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB).
ECB official praises Slovakia's euro entry
The changeover from Slovak koruna to euro, which took place in January, was very smooth, said Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Board.
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.