Finance
ECB may lift growth outlook again, Lagarde says
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
ECB President Lagarde hints at a possible growth outlook upgrade for the euro zone, citing economic resilience. No rate changes are expected soon.
FRANKFURT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The euro zone economy is proving resilient to trade tensions and the bloc is growing close to its potential, which could prompt the European Central Bank to lift growth projections next week, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday.
The euro zone had been expected to suffer a growth dip as U.S. tariffs, a surging euro and increased competition from China eat into exports. But actual outcomes have been far more benign, pointing to a rather resilient domestic economy.
"In the last projection exercises, we have upgraded our projections," Lagarde told a Financial Times event. "My suspicion is that we might do that again in December."
She pointed to sentiment indicators, including on manufacturing, and employment data as signs of resilience.
Lagarde also repeated her mantra that monetary policy was in a 'good place', a signal taken by investors to mean that no interest rate change was needed.
Financial investors see a close-to-zero chance of any rate change at the ECB's next meeting on December 18 and see unchanged rates for months to come as inflation has been hovering close to the 2% target all year.
Lagarde, however, batted back calls by French President Emmanuel Macron for policy that is more supportive of growth, arguing that cheaper borrowing would do little to fix structural flaws, including internal barriers that hamper the flow of goods and capital.
"If I was to lower interest rates rock bottom, if I was to do massive quantitative easing, ... would it change the barriers that I was talking about?"
"Would it facilitate the movement of goods and the provision of services across the member states? No, it wouldn't," Lagarde said.
Still, she said this was a good debate to have and it was "interesting" to consider a change in the EU Treaty, which defines the ECB's primary role as providing price stability.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Jan Harvey)
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank for the eurozone, responsible for monetary policy, maintaining price stability, and overseeing the euro currency.
Monetary policy refers to the actions taken by a central bank to manage the money supply and interest rates to achieve macroeconomic goals such as controlling inflation and promoting economic growth.
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power and often measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Sentiment indicators are statistical measures that gauge the mood of investors or consumers, often used to predict future market trends and economic conditions.
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