Frankfurt, 17/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The next meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank - OF Thursday 19 October, exceptionally in Paris - will be followed by a long awaited press conference after the polemic caused by the recent declarations by ECB President Wim Duisenberg, on the subject of possible further intervention by central banks on the exchange market. In an interview with The Times on Monday, to the question of knowing whether such intervention is appropriate in an international context marked by the Middle East crisis, he simply replied: "I don't know", with the result that the euro fell still further as markets had interpreted this reticence as an announcement of non-intervention.
On Wednesday, the ECB spokesperson denied rumours that Wim Duisenberg was planning to resign. "This is quite false", he told AFP. On Monday, Mr Duisenberg had declared: "Because of my age (65), it is hardly likely that I shall go to the end of my eight year term of office". He thus confirmed that he would resign before then to be succeeded, in principle, by Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor of the Bank of France.