{"id":455088,"date":"2026-05-28T12:42:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/28\/lagarde-indipendenza-delle-banche-centrali-sotto-attacco-va-difesa\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:08:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:08:03","slug":"lagarde-central-bank-independence-is-under-attack-and-must-be-defended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/28\/lagarde-central-bank-independence-is-under-attack-and-must-be-defended\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagarde: “Central bank independence is under attack and must be defended”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cThe treaties gave the ECB legal independence, but the crises gave it the authority it previously lacked to exercise that independence effectively<\/strong>.\u201d For the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde<\/strong>, this is \u201cthe key lesson\u201d of history, which is intertwined with a present fraught with challenges<\/a>. She chose the 28th meeting of Francophone Central Bank Governors to stress the importance of independence and credibility in navigating the roughest of waters, such as those we face today: \u201cthe framework in which we operate has become more demanding,\u201d Lagarde warned. <\/p>\n

Perhaps the most emblematic example is the clash between US President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. An unprecedented clash for a country considered the beacon of democracy and its workings, with the federal government telling the Federal Reserve what to do. \u201cWhen the Chair of the Federal Reserve publicly defended the institution\u2019s independence, the ability to contain political pressures was thanks to the public support built up over the years through the Fed\u2019s independent decision-making<\/strong>,\u201d Lagarde said. <\/p>\n

Of course, Powell stood his ground and stood up to Trump, winning the round. But \u201cthe matter is not settled,\u201d and so, the ECB President continues, \u201cwe can clearly see the mechanism at play: where credibility exists, defending independence does not fall on the central bank\u2019s shoulders alone.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n

It is no coincidence that Lagarde focuses her speech on this issue. Of course, the reference to credibility could also be interpreted as a call for reform by national governments, given that, as she points out, \u201cfiscal pressures stemming from defence needs, the climate transition, the digital transition and ageing are narrowing budgetary margins.\u201d But actually, she argues, the real problem is that \u201cOver the past decade, the de facto independence has deteriorated<\/a> in almost half of central banks in countries that account for 75 per cent of global GDP.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n

Hence, the call for everyone to follow the three key conditions that Lagarde considers crucial to safeguard the credibility and, consequently, the independence of central banks<\/strong>. Firstly, she explains, there must be \u201cclarity of the mandate, as understood by the central bank itself.\u201d  This means that \u201cprice stability must remain the primary objective, and it must be defended even if there is a real, immediate cost.\u201d The second condition is practical: \u201cdirect communication with citizens.\u201d Finally, it is \u201cpreserving the room for manoeuvre of monetary policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ECB President: “Over the last ten years, de facto independence has deteriorated in almost half of the institutions in countries accounting for 75 per cent of global GDP. We need to work on the institution\u2019s credibility”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":255087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[25826,26112,26152,34261,26151,25828,30377,26248],"class_list":["post-455088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-banche-en","tag-bce-en","tag-christine-lagarde-en","tag-credibilita","tag-bank-central-en-en","tag-eurozone-en","tag-independence-en","tag-trust-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455089,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455088\/revisions\/455089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}