MW: Trichet: ECB didn't decide on series of rate hikes
By Polya Lesova
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Thursday's decision by the European Central Bank to raise interest rates was unanimous, but the governing council didn't decide on a series of rate hikes, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said at his monthly press conference in Frankfurt. He repeated that the central bank never precommits on future rate moves, and also added that Thursday's decision to raise rates will help to keep inflation expectations firmly anchored. In a press conference where he faced a barrage of questions over Greece, Portugal and the euro-zone debt crisis, Trichet said that the ECB takes decisions for the whole of the euro area and that the rate increase will benefit all countries in the region.
