21 May 2004, 11:20  ECB's Louekoski - oil inflation risk, ECB neutral

Soaring oil prices are the main risk to euro zone inflation but the European Central Bank has a neutral policy stance at the moment, ECB Governing Council member Matti Louekoski was quoted as saying on Friday. "The oil price is the most probable inflation risk at the moment," Louekoski told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview. But he added the ECB had no policy bias at the moment. Referring to the ECB's last policy meeting on May 6, Louekoski, who is also acting governor of the Bank of Finland, said: "We again had the impression that our communication should be very neutral at the moment. There should be no warning for a rate lowering or a rate hike."///

© 1999-2024 Forex EuroClub
All rights reserved