The president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, sought yesterday to keep his options open in the face of intense pressure to say whether the ECB will indeed raise interest rates (as previously signalled before the credit crunch) at its next meeting on 6 September, The Independent reports.
The state of the German banking industry after the effective collapse of IKB bank and Landesbank Sachsen Girozentrale, as a result of their exposure to US sub-prime liabilities, heightens the issue. M. Trichet said that his last comments on interest rates - suggesting a rise - came before the recent turbulence in the markets and added that the ECB will take all relevant factors into account in its next rate decision. CITY BONUSES HAVE increased by 30% to a record £14bn this year. The rise is twice as big as in 2006 and likely to exacerbate the widening gap between executive and shop-floor...
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