Prime time with presidents

Date: 17/09/1998

The European Central Bank has already succeeded in antagonising the financial markets.

Whatever you may think of currency and bond traders, nobody can deny they work very hard. As a rule, unless a crisis unfolds, they take it easy on Friday afternoons and head home before 7pm.

So when ECB President Wim Duisenberg called a rare press conference for 6pm Central European Time last Friday (11 September), they were not amused. “I was planning to go to the cinema tonight. Fat chance of that now,” said one London investment bank economist who had to stay late to explain Duisenberg's comments to his clients. “There is one silver lining, though,” he added. “Duisenberg's speaking at the same time as the report on Bill Clinton goes on the Internet. No one's going to be interested in anything he says.”