European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that the central bank had completed technical and preparatory work on a digital euro and that the future would depend on the actions of political institutions. The project aims to create a public digital payment instrument and is under review by the European Council and the European Parliament.
His remarks came at the ECB’s final press conference of the year, where policymakers left the eurozone’s key interest rates unchanged. Lagarde reaffirmed the ECB’s commitment to setting interest rates on a meeting-by-meeting basis, saying interest rate decisions would be based on “future economic and financial data,” the outlook for inflation and how effectively policy is working.
“We are not committing in advance to any particular interest rate path,” Lagarde said, adding that inflation was on track to return to the ECB’s 2% target by 2028. Revised forecasts show that headline inflation will average 2.1% in 2025, fall below target in 2026 and 2027, and recover to 2.0% in 2028.
While monetary policy remains solid, Lagarde noted that a digital euro is a strategic priority for Europe’s fiscal future.
“Our goal is to ensure that there is a currency that is fundamental to the stability of the financial system in the digital age,” she said. The ECB also called on EU institutions to move quickly to introduce digital euro regulations.
ECB board member Piero Cipollone also said a digital euro could ensure continuity of payments even in the event of a cyber attack or power outage that disrupts traditional banking infrastructure.
The digital euro is expected to launch in the second half of 2026, in line with the timeline of other euro-backed stablecoin initiatives regulated under the European Market for Cryptoassets (MiCA) Regulation.
