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Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), addresses the annual European Systemic Risk Board conference in Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.<\/p>\n
Alex Kraus\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The European Central Bank held interest rates steady on Thursday as economic uncertainty persists in the wake of U.S. Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the decision, markets had been pricing in an around 99% chance of the ECB’s key deposit facility\u00a0rate being left at 2% for the second consecutive time. The central bank last cut rates in June, bringing rates further down from last year’s record high<\/a> of 4%.<\/p>\n “Inflation is currently at around the 2% medium-term target and the Governing Council’s assessment of the inflation outlook is broadly unchanged,” the ECB said in a statement.<\/p>\n The central bank added that it would follow a meeting-by-meeting, data-dependent approach and was not pre-committing to a specific path for interest rates.<\/p>\n The ECB is grappling with global economic uncertainty, despite inflation in the euro zone hovering<\/a> around the central bank’s 2% target in recent months, and the EU striking a trade agreement<\/a> with the U.S.<\/p>\n The transatlantic partners agreed<\/a> to 15% blanket tariffs on EU exports to the U.S.\u00a0in July, with further details about the framework emerging last month. It addressed some questions for key European sectors like pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n However, questions remain<\/a> as some issues \u2014 such as provisions for the wine and spirits sector \u2014 were left open. Concerns over further tariffs have also grown following Trump’s threat of retaliations against the EU after it hit Alphabet<\/a>