Lagarde to leave the ECB on February 7, ahead of the end of her term in October 2027

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde will step down on February 7, 2027, the ECB said in a press release dated October 29.

What happened

Lagarde informed the ECB's Governing Council and the President of the European Council, António Costa, of her decision on October 29, according to the ECB. The press release was published at 11:00 a.m. CET, before the Governing Council's interest rate announcement later that day.

The ECB said her successor will be appointed by the European Council under the nomination process set out in Article 283 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The release names no candidate and gives no date for the appointment. The Governing Council thanked Lagarde warmly and gave her a long standing ovation, the ECB said.

Lagarde's term was scheduled to run until the end of October 2027, the Irish Examiner reported, citing the ECB announcement. February 7, 2027 falls on a Sunday, according to a calendar check.

The background

The announcement came on the day the Governing Council kept its three key interest rates unchanged: the deposit facility rate at 2.50%, the main refinancing operations rate at 2.65% and the marginal lending facility rate at 2.90%. The Council said it "is not pre-committing to a particular rate path" and will take a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach. FinanceInTime reported the decision when it was published.

The ECB's quarterly Survey of Professional Forecasters, published on October 30, shows what the central bank's next president will inherit. The 52 respondents expected euro area headline inflation, measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), of 3.0% in 2026, 2.6% in 2027 and 2.0% in 2028, according to the survey results. Longer-term expectations, for 2031, stayed at 2.0% for both headline and core inflation, the ECB said. The survey results do not represent the views of the ECB's decision-making bodies or staff, the ECB noted.

That gap between near-term and longer-term inflation expectations is the setting in which the Governing Council will operate in the months before and after the change at the top. The ECB's own policy statement said that the increased magnitude and duration of the energy shock are "likely to drive up inflation and lower growth".

What to watch

The ECB's published meeting calendar lists the next monetary policy meeting on December 16-17, 2026, with a press conference after the second day. The meeting on February 3-4, 2027 is the last scheduled monetary policy meeting before February 7.

The ECB's press release does not say when the European Council will take up the nomination. Until the appointment is announced, the process described in Article 283 of the Treaty is the only guide the ECB has given to how and when a successor will be named.