PARIS (AFX) - The ECB is confident that euro area inflation is slowing, Bank of France governor and ECB council member Jean-Claude Trichet said. "We are confident that inflation is slowing, and we have expressed this confidence very recently by cutting interest rates," he said on RTL radio. Trichet reiterated that the ECB takes its interest rate decisions "quite independently" of outside influences. "We must, and this is our official duty, take our decisions quite independently without being influenced one way or another," Trichet said. Yesterday, the ECB left key interest rates unchanged at its regular meeting which had been preceded by several calls from European politicians for easier credit. Trichet said that the euro is undervalued, and that its recovery "will manifest itself clearly".