ECB Meeting Schedule 2026: Remaining Rate Decision Dates and 2027 Calendar

The Governing Council raised the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points on 10 September 2026. The deposit facility rate goes to 2.50%, main refinancing operations to 2.65% and the marginal lending facility to 2.90%. Note that these take effect on 16 September 2026, not on the day of the announcement.

The move matched expectations: ahead of the meeting, 57 of 69 economists in a Reuters poll had forecast a 25bp hike. This is the second increase of 2026, following June; the July meeting left rates unchanged.

The stated reason is the conflict in the Middle East, which the ECB says continues to generate inflation pressures, with inflation set to remain well above target for an extended period. That sentence is the key to reading this cycle — the driver is an energy and supply shock rather than an overheating economy.

New staff projections put headline inflation at 3.0% in 2026, 2.5% in 2027 and 2.1% in 2028. Compared with June, 2026 is unchanged while 2027 and 2028 were revised up — meaning the return to target has been pushed further out. Excluding energy and food, the path is 2.5%, 2.6% and 2.3%, with 2027 higher than 2026.

Growth is projected at 0.9% in 2026, 1.4% in 2027 and 1.5% in 2028, revised up for 2026 and 2027 on what the ECB calls the greater than expected resilience of the euro area economy. Risks are described as to the upside for inflation and to the downside for growth.

For the next meetings, the ECB explicitly states it is not pre-committing to a particular rate path, keeping a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach. The remaining 2026 meetings are 28-29 October and 16-17 December, with fresh projections due in December.

The September 2026 monetary policy meeting runs 9-10 September, and unusually it is hosted by the Bundesbank in Berlin — ECB policy meetings are normally held in Frankfurt, but a few each year take place in another member state. The decision and press conference come on the second day.

The remaining 2026 meetings after that are 28-29 October and 16-17 December. The September and December meetings also publish Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections.

The September meeting runs across two days, 9 and 10 September. No rate decision comes on the first day. The official calendar marks 9 September as (Day 1) and 10 September as (Day 2), followed by press conference — so the announcement falls on Thursday 10 September.

The decision is published at 14:15 Central European Time, with the president's press conference at 14:45. That is 21:15 in Seoul and Tokyo, 20:15 in China, 13:15 in the UK and 08:15 US Eastern. This mapping holds because September falls inside summer time in both Europe and the US — once clocks change at the end of October the offsets shift, so do not reuse these local times for the 29 October or 17 December meetings.

This is the trap in the published calendar. The Governing Council also holds meetings that do not decide interest rates: 30 September and 25 November are 'non-monetary policy meetings'. Seeing a meeting on the calendar does not mean a rate decision is coming that day.

The 2027 monetary policy meetings are 3-4 February, 17-18 March, 28-29 April, 9-10 June, 21-22 July, 8-9 September, 27-28 October and 15-16 December. The March, June, September and December meetings carry staff projections.

The ECB sets three policy rates. After the 11 June 2026 increase of 25 basis points each, the deposit facility rate is 2.25%, the main refinancing rate 2.40% and the marginal lending rate 2.65%, applied from 17 June. The 23 July meeting held all three unchanged.

When a report says 'the ECB raised rates' without specifying, it almost always means the deposit rate. After the financial crisis, asset purchases left the banking system flush with cash, so banks had little reason to borrow from the ECB; parking surplus funds there became routine, which made the deposit rate the one that actually anchors market rates.

The next decision lands on 10 September 2026 — the meeting runs 9-10 September and the announcement comes on the second day. In a Reuters poll conducted in August 2026, 57 of 69 economists expected the deposit facility rate to rise by 25 basis points to 2.50%. That is a survey, not a decision: the Governing Council does not pre-commit to a rate path.

In the same poll, 55 of 69 expected 2.50% to hold through year-end. So even among those expecting a September hike, further increases in October or December are not the majority view. Because the September meeting also publishes Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections, the revision to those forecasts can matter more than the rate itself.

The announcement comes at 14:15 CET and the press conference follows at 14:45. A useful order: first, what each of the three rates became — in June all three moved by 25 basis points each, to deposit facility 2.25%, main refinancing operations 2.40% and marginal lending facility 2.65%.

Second, the September meeting also publishes Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections. If the rate itself matches expectations, how those forecasts were revised is the part that signals the next meeting. Third, watch whether the press conference hints at October or December.

As of 03:00 CET on 10 September 2026, the ECB's monetary policy decisions page now carries this meeting's decision. This section was written before the announcement; the outcome will be filled in from the official press release.