Overview
The meeting at which the European Central Bank's Governing Council sets monetary policy. Held eight times a year, it decides the three key ECB rates — the main refinancing, deposit facility, and marginal lending rates. The most important event for the euro area's monetary policy, followed by the President's press conference.
Meeting summary （published 2026-04-30）
On 30 April 2026 the ECB Governing Council kept the three key rates unchanged (deposit facility 2.00%, main refinancing 2.15%, marginal lending 2.40%). Incoming information had been broadly consistent with the prior inflation assessment, but upside inflation risks and downside growth risks had intensified. The war in the Middle East had sharply raised energy prices, pushing up inflation and weighing on sentiment, with shorter-horizon inflation expectations up significantly. Q1 real GDP grew 0.1% (preliminary flash). The longer high energy prices persisted, the greater the pass-through to broader inflation via indirect and second-round effects, which the Council would monitor closely for size and persistence. APP and PEPP portfolios continued declining without reinvestment. The Council maintained a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach with no pre-commitment to a rate path, with the TPI available.