LONDON (MNI) – The European Central Bank is not precommitted to
further rises in official interest rates, ECB President Jean-Claude
Trichet said Thursday.
“We have no precommitment and you will see what we do when the time
comes,” Trichet told journalists following the unanimous decision of the
central bank’s Governing Council to raise its key interest rates by 25
basis points.
At the same time, Trichet characterized the resulting monetary
policy stance as “accommodative” and said that “risks to the medium-term
outlook for price developments remain on the upside.”
The ECB head also deployed the key code phrase “monitoring all
developments very closely” to indicate that the central bank remains
on alert to price stability risks.
Trichet reminded that the ECB staff’s latest economic projections
had been based on an increase in rates.
“The staff projections were incorporating increase of rates, so you
should not deduct that we were in the medium term below close to 2%, you
should not deduce anything as regards that we will not need interest
rate increases as they were incorporated in this projection”.
–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com
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