Brussels, 18/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Horst Koehler, Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), invited the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut its key rates. In an interview published on Thursday by the magazine Capital, he considers that the lower rates would help at a critical time for the economic situation of the world and in Europe "without endangering the stability of ECB policy". He considers that the economic fundamentals of the world economy are good, and that, at the present time, inflation is not a problem. A fall in rates, says Mr Koehler, would bring greater confidence. Mr Koehler states, moreover, that it is his right and duty to communicate IMF estimates, in the context of multilateral surveillance. We recall that the IMF had already launched such an appeal for cuts in ECB rates at the beginning of the month of April without it being taken up in practice.