European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet yesterday fended off French criticism of the ECB's interest rate rise saying he had received positive feedback on its first rate hike in more than a year.
A day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked whether it was "reasonable" for the ECB to have raised euro zone rates to 4.25 per cent from four per cent when US interest rates were at two per cent, Trichet said others had responded more favourably.
"I have had a lot of positive remarks" on the rate rise which the ECB announced on Thursday, he said, without specifying the source of the comments.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Friday backed the ECB move and even Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has often criticised the ECB in the past, said the ECB was right to have raised rates to fight rising inflation.
Trichet told the conference the central bank had acted in the public interest and in line with its mandate of ensuring price stability.
"The last European Commission survey showed prices were the primary concern of our fellow citizens," he said adding that the poorest were always hardest hit by any pick up in inflation.
"There is a large consensus [globally]... that price stability is a necessary condition for sustained growth and job creation," he added.
Trichet said central banks took decisions that were appropriate for their particular context when asked by the moderator of a panel discussion on why central banks around the world had different levels of interest rates.