A European Central Bank official has said the best thing monetary policy makers can do to help economic growth in the current market storm is ensure price rises are kept in check.
ECB board member Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi was speaking in Dublin as separate figures showed signs that inflationary pressures in the euro zone were easing.
He also said a new more powerful, global banking regulator must be one of the results when the post-mortem of the banking system is carried out after the credit crisis.
'In an increasingly integrated financial market, the new regulation and supervision will have to be the result of coordinated action on the part of major economies, he said.
Next week could see the first step towards such moves, when the Global Financial Stability Forum will meet to discuss its progress on its financial reform agenda ahead of a Group of Seven meeting in October.
Earlier, ECB figures showed that growth in the euro zone money supply slowed in August to an annual rate of 8.8% from 9.1% in July. The number marked the fifth fall of the M3 measure in six months, and suggested inflationary pressures might be easing in the euro zone.
M3 includes cash, overnight deposits, other short-term deposits, repurchase agreements, shares and units in money market funds and debt securities with a maturity of up to two years.
The ECB's three-month moving average for M3 growth, which is less volatile, eased to 9.2% in the period from June to August from 9.6% in the May-July period.
