Global Overview
All tracked central banks, side by side.
Over the past 3 months: 3 hiked, 1 cut, and 4 held steady across the 8 banks tracked here.
The situation, AI-generated and grounded in the real numbers above and the sources below
Reading recent coverage…
Fed
3.75%
0bp
As of 2026-08-05
ECB
2.25%
+25bp · 1 move
As of 2026-08-06
BoE
3.75%
0bp
As of 2026-08-05
BoJ
0.841%
+11bp · 1 move
As of 2026-06-01
PBoC
1.51%
-20bp · 4 moves
As of 2026-05-01
SNB
-0.25%
0bp · 3 moves
As of 2026-07-01
RBA
4.35%
+4bp · 2 moves
As of 2026-07-31
BoC
2.25%
0bp
As of 2026-08-04
Real coverage from the past 3 months
- Central banks for the world's major economies meet to set rates this month
marketplace.org · 2026-06-02
- Global central banks to announce policy decisions against backdrop of geopolitical tensions
Anadolu Ajansı · 2026-07-28
- Week Ahead for FX, Bonds: Fed, BOE Among Slew of Central Bank Decisions
WSJ · 2026-06-12
- Amid wartime disruptions, most emerging-market central banks will follow the Fed
piie.com · 2026-04-23
Central Bank Room
European Central Bank
Eurozone
Rates
2.25%
Deposit facility rate
As of 2026-08-06
Daily
Resolution
+25bp
Last move
2026-06-17
Rate decisions
2026-06-17
2.25% (+25bp)
quarter-point hike — moves like this are typically used to cool inflation or an overheating economy by making borrowing more expensive.
The one-line note next to each move is a general description of what that type of decision typically does — not this bank's own stated reason for that specific move. "Explain more" generates a short AI summary grounded only in the real, dated news articles listed as sources beneath it (never the bank's official statement, and it may say there isn't enough coverage to explain confidently).
Monetary & budgetary policy, explained
What a policy rate does
A policy rate (like the one European Central Bank sets) is the interest rate a central bank charges or pays on very short-term lending to commercial banks. Every other interest rate in the economy — mortgages, savings accounts, business loans, credit cards — is priced off that base rate, so moving it is the main lever a central bank has to influence the whole economy.
Hikes vs. cuts
Raising the rate ("hiking") makes borrowing more expensive and saving more attractive, which tends to slow spending and investment — used to cool inflation or an overheating economy. Cutting the rate does the opposite: cheaper borrowing encourages spending and investment, used to support a slowing economy or fight deflation/unemployment. Changes typically take months to fully feed through — this is often called the "transmission mechanism."
Monetary policy vs. budgetary (fiscal) policy
Monetary policy — interest rates and money supply — is set by the central bank, which is deliberately kept independent from elected government in most major economies. Budgetary (fiscal) policy — government spending and taxation — is set by the government itself. The two can reinforce each other (both loosening at once to boost growth) or work against each other (a government spending more while its central bank raises rates to fight the inflation that spending causes) — watching both together usually explains the economy better than either alone.
What tends to move when the rate moves
Currency: higher rates often attract foreign capital seeking yield, which can strengthen the currency (and vice versa). Bonds: bond prices generally move opposite to rate expectations. Equities: higher rates raise the discount rate used to value future company earnings, which tends to weigh on stock valuations, especially for growth companies. None of this is guaranteed or immediate — it's the general direction markets expect, not a formula.
Markets & the economy
Eurozone's stock market next to the policy rate — pick a period.
Left axis: policy rate (%). Right axis: Euro Stoxx 50. The two lines are shown side by side for comparison — no correlation is implied; judge for yourself.
What 2.25% actually does to real money
If you're borrowing
Say you owe €10,000 on a variable-rate loan or card priced at roughly European Central Bank's policy rate plus a typical spread — at today's 2.25%, that's about €1,025/year in interest. A further 1-point rate rise would push that to roughly €1,125/year — an extra €100 on just this one balance.
If you're saving
The same €10,000, this time sitting in a savings account, earns roughly €135/yearat today's rate (banks typically pass through less than the full policy rate). A 1-point rise would take that to about €195/year — savers gain from the same move that costs borrowers.
Both boxes are worked illustrations on a stated €10,000 balance and a typical spread over the policy rate — not a specific bank's actual advertised rate. The point is the mechanism and direction, not a quote you could take to a branch.
The one thing most people get backwards
Two 2025 US surveys (Rocket Mortgage and Veterans United) found that roughly 6 in 10 people believe the central bank directly sets mortgage rates.It doesn't. Credit cards, overdrafts, and variable-rate loans — like the borrowing example above — move close to 1:1 with the policy rate, often within weeks, because they're priced directly off it. Fixed mortgage rates are different: they track longer-term bond yields and where investors expect rates to go over the next 10-30 years, not today's policy rate itself — which is why mortgage rates can sit still, or even move the opposite way, right after a policy rate change.
Why the chart above won't show an instant reaction
Economist Milton Friedman's original finding on this — since re-tested many times, including by the St. Louis Fed — is that the gap between a policy move and its full effect on the real economy has historically ranged from 4 to 29 months, with no reliable way to know in advance where in that range a given move will land. That's exactly why a chart of two lines moving together (or not) over a short window can be misleading either way — a real effect can still be working its way through the economy well after the line on the chart looks flat.
The situation over the past year — AI-generated, grounded in the real index move and sources below
Reading recent coverage…
Real coverage from the past year
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In the news
- The ECB-BIG index: tracking credit conditions in the euro area
European Central Bank · 2026-08-06
- Economic Bulletin Issue 5, 2026
European Central Bank · 2026-08-06
- ECB keeps rates unchanged but September hike firmly in play
Reuters · 2026-07-23
- ECB Rate Decision: What to Expect on July 23
Morningstar · 2026-07-17
- European Central Bank holds interest rates at 2.25% after debating rise
Financial Times · 2026-07-23
- Traders see September rate hike as European Central Bank mulls energy price spike
CNBC · 2026-07-23
Commentary
No commentary on ECB yet — check back soon.