ECB economic, financial and monetary developments

At its meeting on 18 December 2025, the Governing Council decided to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. Its updated assessment reconfirmed that inflation should stabilise at the 2% target in the medium term. According to the December 2025 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area, headline inflation is expected to average 2.1% in 2025, 1.9% in 2026, 1.8% in 2027 and 2.0% in 2028. For inflation excluding energy and food, staff project an average of 2.4% in 2025, 2.2% in 2026, 1.9% in 2027 and 2.0% in 2028. Inflation has been revised up for 2026, mainly because services inflation is now ... (