Complaints about price stability at the expense of growth have raised a vibrant response from the head of the European Central Bank. Claude Trichet took the opportunity of a regular meeting with the European Parliament’s monetary affairs committee to answer to French criticism that the bank’s policies were responsible for limiting potential.

He said: “Seventy-three percent of Europeans in the euro zone and the same level among the French are in favour of the Central Bank’s independence from the national governments to ensure price stability.” French presidential candidates Socialist Segolene Royal and the right’s Nicolas Sarkozy have reproached Trichet for repeatedly raising interest rates, keeping the single currency strong against the dollar and dampening French exports. He said euro zone stability had allowed 11 million jobs to be created since the currency’s introduction, compared to three million jobs in the same number of years before it came in.

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