European System of Central Banks

European Central Bank (ECB) Governor Christine Lagarde suggested on Wednesday that the ECB might implement interest rate cuts in the summer. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Lagarde noted that sufficient data on wage growth would be available by "late spring," enabling central bankers to determine whether eurozone inflation is set to rise or fall.

The yield of the Greek 10-year bond, the benchmark of the Greek debt market, has now dropped below 3%, at the lowest levels since April 2022, when the main interest rate of the European Central Bank was still at negative levels.

The European Central Bank must see inflation stably below 3% by the middle of next year before beginning to lower borrowing costs from record highs, ECB policymaker Yannis Stournaras told Reuters on Monday.

The Eurosystem maintained its holdings of Cypriot bonds valued at 6.75 billion euros as of the end of November, data from the Central Bank of Cyprus have shown.

This stability is attributed to the European Central Bank's ongoing efforts to deleverage its balance sheet as a strategy to curb inflation.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde on Wednesday praised the return of Greece's economy to health and the resilience of the Greeks following its debt crisis more than ten years ago.

For the first time in over a year, European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers are expected to decide against raising interest rates again when they gather in Athens on Oct. 26.

Once red-hot, inflation, driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, has started to ease, while the outlook for the economy has worsened.

The digital euro is "cash" that is stored and used for payments on a smartphone, as opposed to using a credit card, bank transfer, or paper and coins. The European Central Bank (ECB) hopes to introduce the digital euro in 2026.

Over the past year, the "big four" Greek banks - Alpha, Eurobank, National and Piraeus - have repaid €31.1 billion of the €50.9 billion they had drawn from the Eurosystem, that is, the European Central Bank and the central banks of the 20 eurozone countries, in the form of loans at favorable interest rates.

The European Central Bank reduced its Greek bond holdings by €172 million in June and July, to €37.979 billion, €1.82 billion from its spring 2022 high of €39.8 billion.

The ECB had purchased these bonds as part of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) despite the fact that Greek debt was, and still is not, investment grade.

Greek bond yields have fallen fast and currently the 2- and 10-year-bonds are trading at around the European average, 3.31% and 3.8% respectively.

Since the European Central Bank (ECB) started raising its rates to fight inflation, Greek borrowing costs have dropped by almost 10%, even as other eurozone members have seen their own inching upward.