European central bank

Central banks probably will halt their monetary tightening campaign and the Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates to ward off a global credit crunch, financial market dealers said on Friday.

Central banks around the globe pumped billions of dollars into banking systems on Friday in a concerted effort to beat back a widening credit crisis, and pledged to do more if needed. n all, central banks in Europe, Asia and North America have pumped out more than $300 billion over 48 hours in an effort to keep money flowing through the arteries of the global financial system, hoping to prevent a credit market seizure that could imperil economies.

The European Central Bank mounted a second day of action to calm panicky credit markets on Friday, after Asia central banks joined a global campaign by monetary authorities to inject extra cash into banking systems.

Central banks from Tokyo to Sydney injected extra cash into banking systems or pledged to do so on Friday, as Asia joined a global campaign by monetary authorities to calm panicky credit markets.

Major central banks swept in to calm credit markets spooked by mounting losses on Thursday, with the European Central Bank injecting record amounts of cash to prevent the financial system from seizing up.

The European Central Bank's preference for making interest rate decisions by consensus rather than a majority vote by policymakers, like most central banks, has been criticized for being clumsy and slow.

ngel Gurria of the OECD, an economics think-tank, believes bankers and economists must speak simply, whatever their mother tongue, and he made the point while attending one of the world's biggest gatherings of financial leaders, in Singapore.

Top European Central Bank policymakers on Friday left open the possibility of a bigger than expected rate rise as the ECB's chief expressed dissatisfaction with inflation running above target.