ECB President Lagarde, speaking on RTE Radio, says growth is a bit more promising than we thought, not seeing second round effects yet

• Reiterates a meeting-by-meeting approach.

Radio remarks from an ECB president tend to confirm rather than set policy, and an interview format of this kind has historically been used to nudge expectations between meetings without committing to a path. The relevant split is between the two halves of the message: a modestly better growth read pushes against near-term easing at the front end, while the absence of second-round effects speaks to the wages-and-services-inflation concern that has been the Governing Council's core argument for caution, and the two together are consistent with the standing meeting-by-meeting frame rather than a signal either way. What has moved EGBs and EUR in comparable episodes is whether such comments prefigure the tone of the next press conference or are contradicted by other officials, since the ECB has a record of divergent commentary between the hawks and doves that has made single-speaker remarks a weak guide. The follow-ons worth noting are subsequent Council member appearances adopting or distancing themselves from the framing, and the wage and negotiated-pay data that sit behind the second-round-effects judgment. As reiterated guidance rather than new information, the read is that the status quo holds.