1. November 2019: Christine Lagarde succeeded Mario Draghi, beginning her eight-year term and becoming the first woman to head the European Central Bank (ECB). 2. March 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economy and financial markets. Lagarde led the ECB in its response, launching the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). 3. July 2021: Lagarde led the ECB in completing its monetary policy strategy review, clarifying that the inflation target is symmetrical, meaning that both excessively low and excessively high inflation need to be addressed. 4. July 2022: Factors such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict triggered high inflation. Lagarde led the ECB in raising interest rates by 50 basis points, ending the era of negative interest rates, and launching the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI). 5. September 2023: Lagarde led the ECB in a series of interest rate hikes to combat inflation. From July 2022 to September 2023, interest rates were raised by a total of 450 basis points, reaching 4%, the highest level since the euro's inception. 6. December 2024: The European Central Bank (ECB) lowered its deposit rate to 3%, and Lagarde successfully led the central bank to reduce the Eurozone's inflation rate from 2.9% at the end of 2023 to 2.4% at the end of 2024. 7. October 2025: During Lagarde's tenure, the ECB continued to advance the digital euro project. The project entered its next phase of preparation, shifting its focus to technical readiness. 8. June 2026: The Middle East war pushed up inflationary pressures, and Lagarde chaired the Governing Council to raise interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.25%, the first rate hike in nearly three years. 9. October 2026: The ECB announced that Lagarde would step down on February 7, 2027, approximately eight months earlier than her originally scheduled term ended.