Major central banks will stay in contact after mounting a successful effort to tame liquidity tensions around the turn of the year, policymakers said today.
Summing up talks among officials from the Group of 10 leading economies, G10 chairman Jean-Claude Trichet said unsettled financial markets posed a clear risk to growth, although globally the expansion should continue at a solid pace.
The meetings at the Bank for International Settlements are the first since the European Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada announced co-ordinated action in mid-December to pump extra liquidity into markets, easing pressure on market interest rates around year-end.
But Mr Trichet, head of the ECB, left open the question of whether there were plans for more, saying market participants had to do their part as well.
"We were very satisfied with the action we embarked on," Mr Trichet said after the discussions. "We remain in very close, confident contact in the future as we have been in the past."
Central banks added extra funds to markets after credit costs jumped in August as banks began to reveal losses on investments linked to US subprime mortgages.
Major banks have so far announced more than $50 billion of write-downs and losses relating to subprime debt and central banks have urged them to be more transparent.