BUSINESS BRIEFS
European Central Bank cuts rate, may go lower
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FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank might further reduce its record-low interest rates, bank president Jean-Claude Trichet told reporters yesterday, after the benchmark rate was cut by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.25 percent.
Speaking to reporters at the central bank's offices in Frankfurt, Trichet said that the decision by the governing council to reduce the rate was made by consensus. He added that it could go lower.
"Is it the lower limit? I would say, very candidly, in regard to the main policy rate , it's not the lowest yet," Trichet said. "I don't exclude we could, in a very measured way, go down from the present level."
The rate is already at its lowest point since the bank was founded and since the euro was adopted 10 years ago. Trichet said that, to his understanding, it is also at the lowest point since World War II.
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AIG EX-CHIEF SAYS TAXPAYERS LOSE
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