The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, yesterday appealed for time to allow the anti-inflationary measures taken in the last couple of weeks by the Government to take effect.

But, speaking to journalists on the fringes of the Ecofin meeting in Brussels, the Minister refused to speculate about the June inflation figures - due to be released today - or when they would peak.

The Department of Finance would publish its prognosis at the end of the month in its Economic Review and Outlook, he said.

He said that he had been maintaining for some time that inflation was going "to spike upwards" in the first half of the year and then dip downwards and the reasons were clear.

"The underlying cause of Irish inflation has been the weak euro, the higher oil prices and the tobacco increase that I imposed myself in the Budget of last December . . .

"But one has to remember that there is no other country in Europe that has a GNP growth of 8 per cent per annum for the past three years, higher still in terms of GDP - maybe of the order of 10 per cent. "Many other countries would like to have the problems we have - unemployment at 4.6 per cent, a budget surplus, and we've done things in the social sphere that we could only have dreamt about a few years ago.

"And the main determinants of Irish inflation have always been outside our control.

"The strength of the Irish economy is extraordinary and is something we all welcome. No one here would have thought that our national employment agency would be going round Europe encouraging people to come home to work in Ireland.

"It's going from strength to strength and inflation is just one aspect of the economy which is somewhat higher than we would have liked."

Asked if he believed that the euro-group should be more interventionist in relation to the value of the euro by, for example, setting inflation targets, Mr McCreevy insisted the currency would only prosper if it was not tainted by politicians.

"For the euro to gain worldwide acceptability and to be reckoned a very desirable currency by the markets I think it is very important to build up a record that things are done in a certain way, and everyone will know that," he said.