Reply #22: ECB's Trichet denies any rate cut discussion [View All]

FRANKFURT, Feb 11 (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet denied that the ECB's Governing Council had informally discussed cutting interest rates at its latest policy meeting, according to an interview transcript published by the ECB on Monday.

"That would be a wrong interpretation," Trichet told Japanese reporters who asked him if the Council had talked about a cut from 4.0 percent, albeit without a policymaker concretely proposing it should do so.

"We had a very thorough discussion because the situation is complex and of a multidimensional nature. Perhaps even unusually multidimensional, taking all elements into account. As I said, there was no call for a rate increase and no call for a rate cut," he continued.

Trichet had made a similar comment at a news conference after the G7 summit of central bankers and finance ministers in Tokyo on Saturday.

... For the ECB's transcript of Trichet's Feb. 9 interview with Japanese news organisations Nikkei, Kyodo News, Yomiuri Shimbun and Nippon Hoso Kyokai, see http://www.ecb.int/press/key/date/2008/html/sp080211.en.html

/.. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINL1173393020080211?rpc=611