FRANKFURT — European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will resign and step down on 7 February 2027, the ECB said in a statement on Thursday. “European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde today informed the Governing Council and the President of the European Council António Costa that she will step down from her position on 7 February 2027,” the bank said.

Source: Reuters

Lagarde's eight-year term was scheduled to run until the end of October 2027, so she is leaving almost nine months early. In a post on X, she wrote: “It has been a source of great pride to serve this institution. I thank all of those who have supported me on this journey over the past seven years.” The ECB Governing Council thanked her and gave her a prolonged standing ovation, according to reports of the announcement.

Costa said he respectfully acknowledged her decision and thanked her for leading the bank “through a global pandemic, a war in Europe, energy crises and inflation shocks”. He said the process to appoint her successor “will be initiated today and will proceed without delay”, with a decision by the European Council acting in its euro area composition under Article 283(2) of the EU treaty.

Source: European Council (Consilium)

Lagarde, 70, took office on 1 November 2019, succeeding Mario Draghi. She had earlier led the International Monetary Fund from 2011 to 2019 and served as France's finance minister. Her ECB presidency was defined by crises: the bank's pandemic emergency purchase programme was eventually expanded to €1.85 trillion (yaani about 1.85 lakh crore euro), and after inflation surged following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ECB raised interest rates ten times between July 2022 and September 2023, by a cumulative 4.5 percentage points.

Speculation about an early departure had circulated for more than a year, with the World Economic Forum — which organises the annual Davos summit — tipped as a possible destination. Analysts say the timing also lets European leaders choose a successor before France's presidential election in April 2027, where eurosceptic candidates are leading in opinion polls; Lagarde herself ruled out standing for the French presidency in an interview last month. The ECB's chief economist Philip Lane's term ends on 31 May 2027 and executive board member Isabel Schnabel is leaving at year-end to move to the IMF, so leaders are expected to settle the ECB's top jobs as a package.

The announcement came on a monetary-policy day: the ECB is due to announce its latest interest rate decision at 1315 GMT on Thursday, followed by what will now be a closely watched press conference with Lagarde at 1345 GMT.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires via Morningstar