ECB president hints at rate rise

EUROPEAN Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet has said market bets on an interest rate increase as soon as next month are reasonable amid accelerating economic growth in the 12-nation euro region.

“What I see in the short-term expectations of moves seems to be reasonable,” Mr Trichet told a briefing in Frankfurt yesterday after the ECB kept its benchmark rate at 2.25%.

The bank will “exercise vigilance” to ensure the “solid anchoring of inflation expectations”. He declined to say the current level of rates is “appropriate”. The ECB raised rates for the first time in five years on December 1, from a six-decade low of 2%, to contain rising prices.