ECB's Noyer says still need to lower euro
PARIS (Reuters) - Bank of France chief Christian Noyer said the European Central Bank had already succeeded in its aim of lowering the euro but that the single currency needed to ease further for the central bank to achieve its inflation target.
"We succeeded perfectly in what was one of our aims, which we need in order to get back to our inflation target of 2 percent a year: we needed to bring the euro down and we still need to bring the euro down," Noyer, also an ECB governing board member, told Europe 1 radio in an interview on Thursday.
His call came as French consumer price inflation fell to an almost five-year low in August, slipping to 0.5 percent year-on-year from 0.6 percent the previous month, data showed.
The euro has fallen from around $1.37 in late-June to trade around $1.29 in early European trade in Thursday.
Asked if the ECB could do more to boost recovery in the euro zone, Noyer noted that interest rates were already lower than those in the United States and Britain as a result of its past actions, but added: "Of course we can always come up with new measures if the situation requires it."
Reacting to France's announcement on Wednesday that it would not meet a commitment to bring its budget deficit below three percent of output until 2017 - two years later than the timescale agreed with EU partners - Noyer said it had to win back credibility with reforms.
He said further cuts to France's high public spending were needed and possible without stunting growth.
(Reporting by Mark John; Editing by Leigh Thomas)
