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Friday July 4, 5:26 PM Euro zone rate rise signals ECB serious: policymakers Photo: Reuters Click to enlarge FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's interest rate rise sends a signal that it is serious about combating inflation, policymakers said as they staged a public relations offensive to justify Thursday's increase. In interviews with media across the euro zone, policymakers denied the rise to a near seven-year high of 4.25 percent would choke economic growth and said soaring inflation was a bigger danger to the 15-nation region. Luxembourg's Yves Mersch said the ECB could do little to influence soaring international commodity prices but it could take steps to head off euro zone wage pressures. "We are sending a signal today which shows that we are determined to act against home-made inflation," he told the Luxemburger Wort newspaper. The ECB raised rates by 25 basis points but President Jean-Claude Trichet said the Governing Council had no bias in favor of further rate moves, damping market expectations of another increase soon. German Bundesbank President Axel Weber said central bankers could not stand idly by while inflation rose to more than double the definition of price stability, potentially driving up inflation expectations and hurting confidence in the ECB. Some risks to inflation had already materialized, making action imperative, Weber said in an interview with the Suedkurier newspaper. Euro zone inflation hit a record 4.0 percent in June, compared with the ECB's 2 percent ceiling. "Given the increases in inflation expectations in the last months I would not speak of a prophylaxis," Weber was quoted as saying. "Some risks to price stability in the medium term have already materialized. A stability-oriented monetary policy must react to such developments, and that is what we have done." Mersch and Weber gave little away on future monetary policy, repeating Trichet's assessment on Thursday. Economists viewed the rate rise as a warning by the ECB that it was serious about tackling inflation which was unlikely to have a serious negative impact on growth, despite protests from European trade unions. "This was a warning shot fired in the air. The next one would be aimed at the legs of the euro zone's economy, should it prove necessary," said UniCredit's chief economist Marco Annunziata. TRICHET REPEATS MESSAGE Trichet himself, in interviews with Dutch, Irish, Spanish and Italian television, stuck closely to the message that achieving price stability was the best contribution that the ECB could make to economic growth. Mersch said the ECB took into account factors including slowing economic growth, financial market tensions and high uncertainty. But he was less optimistic about growth than he was two weeks ago, when he predicted that the second quarter would be the weakest low point for the economy. "We should reach the lowest point in the middle of the year," he told Luxembourg's Tageblatt newspaper. "When exactly growth will pick up again is hard to say. The ECB's forecast stands: the economy is growing more slowly, but it is growing." Mersch also brushed off political criticism of the ECB from Germany and Spain as well as its more habitual critic France, which has taken over the rotating European Union presidency. "It all depends who reporters hold the most microphones in front of, and that is often the (EU) president," he said.