The independence of the European Central Bank

"The increase of interest rates, that the Central European Bank [CEB] has just introduced, has not provoked the usual polemics", notes the editorialist François-Xavier Pietri. "We know the tune, though: if economic growth in Europe is low, it is the fault of the Central Bank's rigidity. The institution is all the easier to target for being European, thus a sort of irresponsible magma, with the accusation exonerating national actors of their responsibility, be they from the left or the right. ... It has evidently become more difficult to react. What indeed is being announced to us by Jean-Claude Trichet [president of the CEB]? That inflation should go down in Europe in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and that growth should increase over the same period. What more could one wish for? ... Jean-Claude is making the CEB less and less attackable".

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