The European Central Bank Governing Council announced on 29 October 2026 that its three benchmark rates – the deposit facility rate (2.50%), the main refinancing operations rate (2.65%) and the marginal lending facility rate (2.90%) – will remain unchanged. The press release also noted that energy prices continue to rise, creating upside risks for inflation and downside risks for growth.
Although the full impact of the energy shock is still unfolding, underlying inflation has stayed broadly stable and wages have not shown a material response yet. Tighter financing conditions since the last meeting are likely to weigh on both inflation and growth.
The ECB reaffirmed its commitment to bring inflation back to its 2% medium‑term target and said its approach will stay data‑dependent, deciding on policy meeting by meeting. The asset purchase programme (APP) and the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) are declining in a measured, predictable way as the Eurosystem no longer reinvests principal payments from maturing securities.
In the broader market snapshot, Bitcoin is priced at 77757.25 dollars, down 4.35% over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum trades at 2240.49 dollars, down 4.96% in the same period.