BERLIN (MNI) – European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet
on Thursday again stressed that the central bank is upholding the
separation principle between its standard and non-standard measures.
He also repeated the phrase “strong vigilance,” and said explicitly
that it has implications for interest rate policy.
“As you know, part of our concept is to strictly separate what we
call the standard measures, namely the interest rate measures, that we
are taking to deliver price stability, and the non-standard measures
that we take to be sure that we are coping with abnormal functioning of
some of the markets,” Trichet said during the question and answer
session of his appearance in the European Parliament.
“We are still, of course, living in the fallout of the worst crisis
since World War II at the global level, which could have been the worst
crisis since World War I — so something which is extremely grave,” the
ECB president noted.
“And I refer to what we said last time, we had said that we were in
a state of strong vigilance, which means something for the interest rate
standard measures,” Trichet reminded.
“We said at the same time that we would maintain for the third
quarter of this year the fixed-rate full allotment refinancing on the
three month basis, which shows that the separation principle is applied
strictly,” he said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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