April 23, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1427

WASHINGTON, April 22: European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Friday he was on high alert for risks to inflation and declined to counter market expectations that interest rates would rise again in June.

We will continue to monitor very closely all developments to ensure that risks to price stability over the medium term do not materialize,” Trichet told a news conference following a Washington meeting of Group of Seven finance chiefs.

It is essential, from our standpoint, to ensure that medium to long-term inflation expectations in the euro area are very well-anchored ... it is good for growth and for job creation, he said.

Asked about an observation he made at the ECB’s last news conference that market bets for an interest-rate rise in May were misplaced — which shifted the focus to June for the next hike — Trichet deliberately left that impression in place.

I have nothing to add to what I said during the press conference. You are just mentioning, I guess, that the message was pretty clear, he said.

Trichet stressed that inflationary expectations in the 12-nation common currency bloc had been kept in check thanks to central bank vigilance. Nor did he think rising long-bond yields constituted a warning.

Some increases in long-term rates had also been observed in the recent period of time ... but it was not because there had been a dis-anchoring of inflationary expectations, Trichet said.—Reuters