The European Central Bank's Governing Council takes its monetary policy decisions every six weeks

Background

The Governing Council is the main decision-making body of the European Central Bank. It consists of the six members of the Executive Board, plus the governors of the national central banks of the euro area countries. Its main responsibility is to formulate monetary policy for the euro area. That includes decisions on monetary objectives, key interest rates, the supply of reserves in the Eurosystem, and guidelines for implementing those decisions. The Governing Council usually meets twice a month, and takes its monetary policy decisions every six weeks. At its other meetings the Council deals mainly with the other tasks and responsibilities of the ECB and the Eurosystem. To keep the ECB's monetary policy separate from its supervisory responsibilities, separate meetings of the Governing Council are held for supervisory matters.