European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet defended the bank's Dec 1 decision to increase interest rates, saying stable prices would enhance confidence as well as encourage investments in the region, according to a prerelease of his interview with weekly Der Spiegel magazine. "Stable prices secure the purchasing power, enhance confidence, strengthens medium and long-term market interest rates at lower levels and encourage investments," he said. All these, he added, are "good for growth and for job creation." He said the Dec 1 move to increase interest rates would help thwart creating a second-round of inflationary effects, which "are a risk that would then have a permanent impact on future inflation". He said the citizens in Europe understand that "prevention is better than healing". Trichet also urged governments in the EU states to pursue further reforms, saying the central bank's monetary policies "alone would not be enough to solve all (economic) problems" in the region. "We also need radical structural reforms in order to increase our growth potential," he said. He said Europe is currently in a learning process and is confronted with enormous tasks. "But we have to manage them because we have already proven that we can do it," he added.