The Governing Council decided at its meeting on 14 December 2023 to keep the three key ECB interest rates unchanged. While inflation has dropped in recent months, it is likely to pick up again temporarily in the near term.[ 1 ] According to the December 2023 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area, inflation is expected to decline gradually over the course of 2024, before approaching the Governing Council’s 2% target in 2025. Overall, Eurosystem staff expect headline inflation to average 5.4% in 2023, 2.7% in 2024, 2.1% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026. Compared with the September 2023 ECB staff ... (full story)