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Tuesday, June 9, 1998 Published at 19:06 GMT 20:06 UK

Business: The Economy

European Central Bank keeps policy under wraps

The European Central Bank left many questions unanswered

The first ever meeting of the governing board of the European Central Bank (ECB), which will supervise the launch of the European single currency, turned out to be a damp squib.

Wim Duisenberg, the bank's newly appointed president, said that the ECB had not as yet made any decisions about European monetary policy.

[ image: Wim Duisenberg said European inflation remains subdued]
Wim Duisenberg said European inflation remains subdued
However Mr Duisenberg did say that the growth in money supply in the countries that will participate in the introduction of the 'euro' was not excessive. He also said that European inflation seemed 'subdued'.

Central banks from the eleven participating European countries will pay the equivalent of around 4 billion euros (about $4bn) to provide a capital base for the ECB.

The banks have also agreed that 10-15% of this balance will be in gold. This caused the gold price to dip as analysts had expected the ECB to hold up to a fifth of its assets in gold.

The ECB, which is based in Frankfurt, Germany, will be responsible for overseeing the monetary policy for the euro.