News Summary

• ECB President Christine Lagarde said September’s 3.8% euro-area inflation rate largely reflected high energy costs, which the ECB expects to ease next year.
• Lagarde also confirmed that the ECB is devising a digital euro.
• “The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments,” according to the ECB president.
• The ECB had launched Pontes, a system that allows financial institutions to settle wholesale tokenized asset transactions in central bank money, providing an alternative to private settlement assets such as stablecoins.