Watch Live: Mario Draghi’s Last Press Conference As ECB Chief

After eight years of leadership, Mario Draghi is stepping down from the helm of the European Central Bank. This final press conference as ECB president is expected to be something of a lovefest for the man whom many economists have credited with saving the euro (for better or worse).

What’s more, seven years after his infamous promise to do “whatever it takes” (within the central bank’s mandate) to save the joint currency, Draghi will leave the central bank in the hands of Christine Lagarde, a former French finance minister and leader of the IMF who was appointed to lead the central bank despite having little in the way of pertinent experience, whose term begins next Friday. Back in September, Draghi did her the favor of setting the central bank on a new policy course by restarting QE (over the objections of one-third of the governing council’s members) but this time leaving it open-ended. He also lowered the already negative deposit rate to – 0.5%, rejiggered the central bank’s system for publishing forward guidance and much, much more.

While Lagarde has been pretty well provisioned, Draghi’s will leave his post under a cloud of uncertainty: Despite the central bank’s best efforts to revive economic growth in the eurozone, the bloc’s economy is instead teetering on the brink of another recession. And Draghi’s last meeting will likely be peppered with serious questions about the outlook for growth and the possibility of fiscal stimulus – will Germany step up to save the bloc from recession? It’s going to be an interesting meeting, to say the least.

“…all your’s Christine!”

Watch Mario’s fond farewell starting at 0830ET: