FILE: Frankfurt, Germany - March 10, 2016 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of sign, logo of European Central Bank (ECB); European Union flags

FILE: Frankfurt, Germany - July 21, 2016 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Exterior of ECB

Bangkok, Thailand - Oct 14, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Lagarde, president, European Central Bank (partially overlaid with shots 4-6):
"What surprised me a lot about the global economic outlook and about the state of the global economy is the resilience. We had all anticipated, two years ago, one year ago, that the situation would deteriorate, that growth would be down, that whether it was advanced, emerging or lower-income countries, all economies would stand to suffer as a result of the compounded shocks that we have suffered for the last almost six years now. And most economic advisers and experts were assuming that our economies would not fare well and would be hit severely and the surprise is that it has shown a resilience that we had not anticipated. So that's the pull on the positive side."

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FILE: Frankfurt, Germany - Sept 13, 2018 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. ECB headquarters, sign

FILE: Frankfurt, Germany - April 17, 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Various of euro sign sculpture

FILE: Paris, France - 2026 (CGTN - No access in Chinese mainland)
6. Various of vehicles at gas station; resident refueling car
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FILE: China - Exact Location and Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Various of euro banknotes going through counting machine

Bangkok, Thailand - Oct 14, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Lagarde, president, European Central Bank (partially overlaid with shots 9-10):
"What surprises me, unfortunately, on the negative side, is that, much to our regret, the geopolitical landscape is really damaging the economic policies that we're heading in the right direction. If I look at me, very selfishly, we were back to our medium-term target of two percent inflation. So although I never said job done, we really felt that we had pulled all the strings and taken all the right measures and applied the right analysis to reach our target. But unfortunately, that was disrupted. So the geopolitical developments, the action of men and women is actually hurting the development that would otherwise have taken place. So that's a regret that I have. So surprise on the good side, resilience, regret that geopolitical transformation and developments are really not helping the stability of prices, the development of growth and the innovation and progress that all human beings can expect."

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FILE: Madrid, Spain - Aug 25, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
9. Various of street, traffic

FILE: Germany - May 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Various of workers working at auto assembly lines
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FILE: Paris, France - Sept 5, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Various of traffic, pedestrians

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said the resilience of the global economy stands as the most unexpected bright spot of recent years, while geopolitical developments disrupting economic policy remain her foremost regret.

Lagarde spoke to China Media Group (CMG) on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, held in Bangkok, Thailand, from October 12 to 18. She said that after years of bracing for the worst -- from the pandemic to war and repeated energy crises -- what struck her most was how well the global economy had withstood them.

"What surprised me a lot about the global economic outlook and about the state of the global economy is the resilience. We had all anticipated, two years ago, one year ago, that the situation would deteriorate, that growth would be down, that whether it was advanced, emerging or lower-income countries, all economies would stand to suffer as a result of the compounded shocks that we have suffered for the last almost six years now. And most economic advisers and experts were assuming that our economies would not fare well and would be hit severely and the surprise is that it has shown a resilience that we had not anticipated. So that's the pull on the positive side," she said.

On the other side of the ledger, Lagarde said geopolitical shifts are reversing hard-earned progress, interrupting a return to price stability that had taken years to engineer.

"What surprises me, unfortunately, on the negative side, is that, much to our regret, the geopolitical landscape is really damaging the economic policies that we're heading in the right direction. If I look at me, very selfishly, we were back to our medium-term target of two percent inflation. So although I never said job done, we really felt that we had pulled all the strings and taken all the right measures and applied the right analysis to reach our target. But unfortunately, that was disrupted. So the geopolitical developments, the action of men and women is actually hurting the development that would otherwise have taken place. So that's a regret that I have. So surprise on the good side, resilience, regret that geopolitical transformation and developments are really not helping the stability of prices, the development of growth and the innovation and progress that all human beings can expect," she said.