The European Central Bank has announced that official interest rates will remained unchanged.

The bank’s President, Jean Claude Trichet, hinted however that rate rises are due in the autumn.

Our Economics Editor Marc Coleman has more details.

“Although likely to be a slow process, interest rises should begin by the end of this year – with a rise of a least a quarter of a percentage point” he said.

“For some borrowers, the rise will be more than that; that’s because Irish banks face generally low interest rate margins compared to the rest of the EU, and Irish banking is in a distressed condition”.

“The withdrawal of special liquidity provisions by the ECB later on this year may also have some impact on rates” he added.