European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet jolted the markets Friday with the announcement that the ECB will gradually withdraw the emergency cash injections it has added to the financial system, in order to prevent an acceleration in inflation."Not all our liquidity measures will be needed to the same extent as in the past," Trichet said at a conference in Frankfurt Friday, Bloomberg News reported. "Any non-standard measure whose continuation would pose a threat to the achievement of price stability must be undone promptly and unequivocally."

Almost on cue, the European Central Bank took a page out of U.S. Federal Reserve's playbook Wednesday.

