Contrary ECB gives up pursuit of credibility

Whatever pretensions the European Central Bank had to securing credibility in the marketplace or among the wider public lie in tatters in the aftermath of the inexplicable decision this week to lower interest rates.

The fact that the rate cut might be justified is not at issue. What is at issue is that the ECB in the form of Wim Duisenberg and the governing council have failed to abide by the very standards they clung to just weeks ago.

Then we were told the EU economy was still growing healthily and that the bank's remit was controlling inflation; now we hear growth is not what it seemed and inflation is no longer the all-powerful argument it was.

It is impossible to escape the feeling that the defining feature of the rate cut is contrariness. The rate was cut this time precisely because the ECB had finally convinced everyone of its argument over what its role was and that it would not be bullied into action. In other words, no cut was expected.

At an earlier time when rates might have been cut, they were not because to do so would have been seen to bow to such pressure.

The trouble is that Mr Duisenberg and his cohort are playing with the credibility of a currency to which we are all committed.