European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank “firmly focused” on delivering price stability after inflation surged to a 16-year high.
"By maintaining price stability over the medium term, which means pinning down trend inflation and ensuring that inflation expectations are firmly anchored, central banks contribute" to "sustainable growth and to job creation," Mr Trichet said at a conference in Barcelona, Spain, today.
"The ECB, with its mandate for price stability, is firmly focused on this policy goal."
The ECB has held its key rate at a six-year high of 4 per cent since June last year to counter inflation, which accelerated to 3.6 per cent last month. The bank may not lower borrowing costs until at least February next year even as the economy cools, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Mr Trichet said he comments today should not be seen as a signal for the bank's policy meeting on June 5th. All 59 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the Frankfurt-based bank to keep its benchmark interest rate at 4 per cent.
Bloomberg