Europe · Business news · Economy · 23 Jul 2026
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The ECB's Governing Council kept its three key rates unchanged on 23 July: 2.25% on the deposit facility, 2.40% on main refinancing operations and 2.65% on the marginal lending facility. It said the energy price outlook was highly volatile but close to the June staff projections and well above pre-conflict levels, that uncertainty remained high and that the full inflationary impact of the energy shock had yet to play out. It kept a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach and said it was not pre-committing to a rate path. The APP and PEPP portfolios continue to shrink as maturing bonds are not reinvested.
The deposit rate anchors what euro-area banks earn on reserves and how variable-rate loans reprice, so the pause after June's increase left bank net interest income, mortgage costs and corporate refinancing costs where they were. Rate-sensitive groups — property companies, indebted utilities and telecoms — are exposed through financing costs, and insurers through reinvestment yields. The statement's stress on second-round effects kept open the question that the 10 September meeting later answered with another increase.
Reported by European Central Bank (published by Banco de España) — “Monetary policy decisions” ↗ on 23 Jul 2026.
Official series on 23 Jul 2026 or the last day before it, and the latest observation.
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