(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 18 - Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Antonio Tajani on Saturday called on the European Central Bank to rethink its policy of hiking up interest rates to combat high levels of inflation.
    "You shouldn't combat exogenous inflation by continuing to raise interest rates because growth will then end up paying the price," Tajani, the national coordinator of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said at the Feuromed festival in Naples.
    "The way to beat inflation in Italy and Europe is by putting a cap on gas.
    "I'd advise more prudence from the ECB, as many representatives of that independent institution have, because this also has an impact on the Mediterranean, where businesses have to be put in a condition to be able to complete". (ANSA).