Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, has defended a rise in official interest rates as good for the whole eurozone even as preparations began for a bail-out of Portugal, the latest victim of the region’s debt crisis.
Acting against inflation was “in the interests of all members and partners of the single [European] market and single currency,” and would help boost economic confidence, Mr Trichet said on Thursday.
His comments followed the ECB’s decision to lift its main interest rate from 1 per cent to 1.25 per cent, which economists warned would hit the eurozone’s weakest economies hardest – including Portugal and Ireland.
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