The European Central Bank, inflation tolerance and the last mile

March 20, 2024--Inflation in the euro area has declined convincingly from the very high levels seen in the past couple of years. The rate is expected to be 2.3% in 2024-what a difference from 8.4% in 2022 and 5.6% in 2023.
But in January 2024 it was still 2.8%, so still has some way to go before dropping to 2.3%, and then to 2%, which is commonly considered to be the desirable level.

In a speech in November, European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member, Isabel Schnabel seemed to pre-empt this, talking about the "last mile" that, just like in endurance sports, is the hardest to push through.

But insisting on completing the "last mile" is quite the wrong narrative to follow. As the system is rigged with uncertainty and there is no way of understanding either the direction or size of risks, the ECB should talk instead about inflation tolerance -or risk introducing even greater volatility into the system.

ESMA's activities in 2024 focused on strengthening the EU capital markets and putting citizens and businesses at the heart of it

June 16, 2025-The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published its Annual Report for 2024. The activities conducted and results achieved in 2024 support ESMA's strategic priorities and thematic drivers- to foster stable and effective markets, strengthen supervision, and enhance retail investor protection while enabling sustainable finance and facilitating technological innovation and the use of data.