The European Central Bank has not decided already on a series of interest rate rises following today's quarter point rise in its key lending rate, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said.
"We are not engaging ex ante in a series of interest rate increases and as I said, we will continue to monitor closely all developments with respect to risks to price stability," Mr Trichet told a news conference after the central bank announced its first interest rate hike in five years.
The central bank would see what additional information was available before making any further decisions, Mr Trichet added.
His remarks suggested that the central bank will follow a wait-and-see approach, only making future rate hikes gradually.
Unlike the US Federal Reserve, the ECB does not intend a steady stream of hikes, a strategy that would have required the ECB to push its official rate up from 2.25 per cent currently to about 3.5 per cent.
Instead markets have assumed that the ECB would gradually lift rates to 2.75 per cent in 2006 - a strategy that would give the euro zone economy more time to become more resilient as long as inflationary pressures remain contained.