Investor: Statements emanating from the European Central Bank (ECB) concerning interest rate policy have grabbed the headlines in Europe over the past week to 10 days.

First, Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the ECB's governing council, gave an explicit hint that the ECB was about to raise interest rates for the first time in five years at its next policy meeting. The euro immediately rose on the foreign exchange markets, and money markets quickly priced in a three-quarter-point rise in euro interest rates over the next nine months.

Some days later, the euro was hurt by further comments from Jean-Claude Trichet that the then widely expected interest rate rise would not necessarily be the start of a trend.

Subsequent comments from Guy Quaden, a member of the ECB's governing council, appeared to endorse the later words of the president.

With US interest rates expected to continue increasing in coming months, the likely quarter-point rise in euro interest rates will not be sufficient, by itself, to boost the euro exchange rate in the short-term.

European equity markets by and large shrugged off the interest rate news and focused more on the positive trends in growth and corporate profits.

In Dublin it was a very busy week for corporate results that included data from two of the market's mid-sized companies, Viridian and Greencore.

Viridian's interim figures were ahead of market expectations with a 10 per cent rise in operating profit and a 15 per cent rise in adjusted earnings per share (EPS).

Viridian Power and Energy, which includes the Huntstown power station, enjoyed strong turnover growth, although operating profits declined by 7.5 per cent. The dividend was increased by 4.5 per cent and Viridian continues to offer investors an above average yield of 4.6 per cent.

The company's balance sheet is strong with net debt of €314 million at end-September, compared with €372 million at end-March. This is after a capital return of €97.9 million and a special pension contribution of €25 million.

Viridian remains in a strong position to fund the Huntstown 2 project. Investors reacted positively to the strong results, pushing up the shares by 4 per cent on the day of the results release.

Like Viridian, Greencore also offers investors an above average dividend yield of 4 per cent. Its results were broadly in line with market expectations although its share price declined marginally on the day.

Full year EPS grew by 4.3 per cent to 33.8c and its year-end debt level was €398 million, which was in line with analysts' forecasts.

Of course Greencore is currently in the news due to an imminent decision by the EU on sugar reform. Greencore's agribusiness unit suffered a decline in operating profit of 11.2 per cent, due to a squeeze on profits in sugar and malt. Sugar margins declined due to increased competition as key customers sought to put alternative supply arrangements in place ahead of anticipated EU sugar reforms. High energy costs affected malt performance in a period when margins were under pressure due to significant industry over-capacity.

Fortunately, Greencore's food division performed very well with like-for-like turnover up by 7.5 per cent. An improvement in profit margins led to an impressive rise of 16.4 per cent in the division's operating profits. Convenience foods such as sandwiches, ready meals and cakes performed strongly, with ready meals benefiting from contract manufacturing for Weight Watchers labels.

While Greencore has outperformed many of its UK peers in a difficult environment, Investor does not see much potential for share price appreciation in the stock.

Growth in earnings will be difficult to achieve and the changing sugar regime adds a further layer of uncertainty.

While the dividend yield is attractive it is not sufficient on its own to tempt Investor to buy the stock.

In contrast, Viridian offers a higher dividend yield and greater visibility of future growth in earnings and dividends.

The prospective rate of growth is likely to be modest but for investors who require income Viridian offers a sound combination of an initial high dividend yield with a high probability that the dividend will grow faster than inflation over time.