LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday the bank can cut interest rates further but that its deposit rate was already at very very low levels, and added it could use more non-conventional measures to help the troubled banking system.
"As regards the future rate of our main refinancing operations, presently at 1.5 percent, I said clearly that we could decrease it again," Trichet said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Trichet also maintained a reluctance to see interest rates fall to zero.
"There are a number of drawbacks associated with policy rates deliberately put at a zero level ..."
"But what counts are the interest rates that are in the market and that the public gets," he said adding that euro zone six-month money market rates were below those in the United States. (Reporting by Ben Deighton and Marc Jones, editing by Kim Coghill)