ECB signals no rate rise in June

The European Central Bank's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, signalled that eurozone interest rates are unlikely to rise next month but left the door firmly open for an increase in July.

Mr Trichet did not use the phrase "strong vigilance" at a news conference which followed the ECB's decision to leave rates at 1.25 per cent, after raising them in April to end two years of crisis-induced loose policy.

The ECB has regularly used the phrase to signal an increase was only a month away and Mr Trichet did so in March, before the central bank raised rates from the record-low 1 per cent they had been held at since May 2009.