Three European central bankers today confirmed that worries over inflation meant interest rates were on hold for now but service sector surveys showed growth rates had fallen again in the euro zone.
Bundesbank president Mr Ernst Welteke, his Finnish counterpart Mr Matti Vanhala and European Central Bank executive board member Mr Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said inflation dangers had dwindled but not yet disappeared.
"Right now the conditions do not allow for a significant reduction of interest rates in Europe," Mr Padoa-Schioppa told reporters in Brussels.
"And anyway, the current ECB interest rate level is not hampering growth," he added.
Key ECB officials appeared divided last month over the gravity of the threat posed by the cooling US economy to the common currency bloc.
But since then they have stuck carefully to the common line that price pressures were still lurking and the bank's best defence for growth was to deliver price stability.
Consequently, the ECB it has kept its key interest rate unchanged at 4.75 per cent since last October and financial markets now expect it hold fire at least until June.