Foreign trade has seen moderate negative growth in recent months, driven mainly by trade in chemical and energy products, transport equipment, and machinery.

With inflation having fallen sharply, the ECB cut interest rates in early June. It is closely monitoring wage growth as wages had risen 5% year-on-year in the euro area in early 2024. This factor could exert upward pressure on inflation. Can we expect to see further rate cuts soon? Find out in the latest article on our blog, co-authored by Jana Jonckheere and Hélène Zimmer.

On 6 June, the ECB lowered interest rates. ECB President Christine Lagarde has penned a blog post explaining why the ECB did so and what still needs to be done to bring inflation back to 2% in the foreseeable future.

According to the National Bank’s latest projections, the Belgian economy should continue to grow at a relatively steady pace. Domestic demand is set to moderate, but net exports are expected to make a gradually less negative contribution to growth. Inflation is forecast to fall again. The labour market weakened slightly faster than expected but should gradually pick up again.

In the latest post on our blog, NBB statisticians Martine Druant and Luc Monseu use a matrix to map financial flows between economic sectors for 2023. For example, the issuance of a new one-year State note caused households to shift €22 billion from bank deposits to the government.

On 6 June, the Governing Council decided to lower the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. 

Read more on this in the latest Business Cycle Monitor.