ECB will 'do what we must' to lift inflation: Draghi

(MENAFN- AFP) ECB chief Mario Draghi said Friday the bank will "do what we must" to lift inflation as quickly as possible, in a new sign it could boost its anti-deflation defences.

In a speech at the Frankfurt European Banking Congress, Draghi warned that inflation was stubbornly way below the target of close to 2 percent even though the bank has deployed a 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) scheme to help lift consumer prices.

The quantitative easing programme to buy sovereign bonds at a rate of 60 billion euros a month runs until at least September 2016, but inflation came in at zero in October.

"If we decide that the current trajectory of our policy is not sufficient to achieve that objective, we will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible. That is what our price stability mandate requires of us," the European Central Bank chief said.

Minutes of the ECB bankers' last meeting on October 22 showed that some members were starting to mull over whether the bank needed to deploy measures other than QE to raise inflation.

Among possible options that could be considered would be a further cut of the ECB's key lending rate, which is already at a record low of 0.05 percent, the minutes published Thursday showed.

Central bankers of the 19-member eurozone are keen to fight falling prices because they can be poisonous for the economy, creating a vicious circle of falling demand and fewer jobs.

While falling prices might appear to be good for consumers, deflation can become entrenched if consumers delay purchases in the hope of lower prices later, which in turn prompts companies to hold off investment.

The ECB's governing council will next meet in early December.