ECB gives timetable for non-rate policy meetings

Other meetings of the Governing Council will be devoted to issues like bank clearing, money market procedures or supervision. On these occasions, the ECB will announce at 2:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT) rather than the 1245 GMT slot reserved for rate announcements whether it has any statements on other issues, an ECB spokesman said.

The ECB has been reviewing rates every fortnight since it took over the euro zone's monetary policy in January 1999 and has faced mounting calls to meet less often to avoid continuous rate speculation and excessive market volatility. The procedure for the policy-setting meetings remains unchanged, with rate announcements due at 1:45 p.m. local (1245 GMT) and usually followed by a news conference with President Wim Duisenberg.

Duisenberg made clear last week that in special circumstances the ECB council could still decide to change rates at any time regardless of its schedule, as it did on September 17 when it slashed rates by half point between regular meetings.

Were such a decision made by one of the meetings not normally scheduled to do this, the ECB would give a short advance warning that a monetary policy announcement was due, the bank said.