Blog | Artificial intelligence (AI) can help track inflation risks in real time. A new ECB model based on machine learning informs experts how likely it is that inflation will be much higher or much lower than they expect.

In times of growing economic and political uncertainty, prices can change more rapidly and more strongly. This is why monetary policy decisions rely not only on the most likely path for inflation, which economists like to call the “baseline”, but also on an assessment of the r...

The European Commission has today adopted the revised Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (‘TTBER’) and Guidelines on the application of Article 101 of the Treaty to technology transfer agreements (‘Guidelines’), following a thorough review of the rules that have been in place since 2014.

Technology transfer agreements are agreements by which a firm that owns technology rights (such as patents, design rights or software copyright) authorises another firm – usually by granting a licenc...

Blog | The Middle East conflict halted growth momentum. The right policies and stronger global cooperation are needed to contain the damage.  

Today, the Council presidency and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on a regulation aimed at addressing the negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity on the EU steel market.

The regulation will introduce a new framework to protect the EU steel sector from global excess production and trade diversion, while ensuring that the measure remains compatible with the EU’s international trade obligations and sufficiently flexible for economic operators, including do...

The European Commission is gathering the views of Member States on a draft proposal for a State aid Temporary Crisis Framework to support the EU economy in the context of the Middle East crisis, as announced on 13 April 2026 by President Ursula von der Leyen. The draft proposal is based on Article 107(3)(c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which allows aid to develop specific economic sectors also in view of specific unexpected economic risks.

The Commission is consulting Member State...

Speech by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the 2026 Spring Meetings in Washington, DC

Good morning.

A resilient world economy is being tested again by the now-paused war in the Middle East. The conflict has caused considerable hardship around the globe. My heart goes out to all people affected by this war and all wars.

When we welcome ministers and central bank governors to our Spring Meetings next week, our focus will be on how best to weather this latest shock and ease the pain on...

Blog | Europe’s energy dependence increasingly complicates the task of maintaining price stability. Meeting the continent’s clean‑energy targets would weaken the link between volatile global markets and domestic prices. Crucially, the tools to make this transition are already within reach.

Europe’s energy dependence has become one of the critical vulnerabilities of our economy. Recent energy price shocks have transferred vast resources out of Europe, prompted emergency interventions and strained...

 The Heads of the International Energy Agency, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank Group have agreed to form a coordination group to maximize their institutions’ response to the energy and economic impacts of the war in the Middle East. They issued the following joint statement:

The Middle East war has caused major disruptions to lives and livelihoods in the region and triggered one of the largest supply shortages in global energy market history. The impact is substantial, global, and hi...

Blog | Widening global current account imbalances are best addressed by simultaneous domestic policy adjustments. Industrial policy and tariffs offer a costly fix with unreliable effects on imbalances.

Global current account imbalances are widening again, reversing a decade of steady decline following the global financial crisis. History suggests a clear risk: widening imbalances have often been accompanied by concentrated and lower-quality growth, triggered sectoral dislocations across trading ...

As the Eurosystem normalises its balance sheet, central bank reserves – banks’ most liquid asset – keep declining. This post examines how banks adapt to lower levels of reserves and explains why take-up in the Eurosystem’s standard refinancing operations (SROs) is expected to increase.^[1]

Central bank reserves have almost halved from a peak of €4.9 trillion in 2022 to €2.6 trillion in early 2026 (Chart 1a). While still abundant, they are unevenly spread across banks. This implies that, as the ...