LONDON (MNI) – The recent rise in Eurozone interbank borrowing
costs should not be seen as a signal for monetary policy, European
Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Thursday.
“I would say it would be a complete mistake to interpret what we
are observing on the market as a monetary policy signal,” Trichet told a
press conference following the latest meeting of the Governing Council.
In this regard, Trichet noted that the banks could have asked for
and received as much liquidity as they wanted at recent liquidity
operations.
“That is not the case at all, as I said, as far as we understand,
the decisions of the banks themselves to ask for less than they could
have done, because again all the supply of liquidity three-month
operations and LMRO operations were unlimited,” he said. “So they could
have got exactly the amount they needed.”
“So again we had absolutely no intention ourselves,” he stressed.
“We are observing the bank rate with great care, but no monetary policy
signal”.
[TOPICS: M$$EC$,MT$$$$,M$X$$$,MGX$$$]