ECB should use all tools available to fulfil its mandate – ECB’s Praet

FXStreet (Mumbai) - European Central Bank (ECB) Board member Peter Praet said in a speech delivered at the Watchers XVI conference organized by the Center for Financial Studies in Frankfurt today, the decision by the ECB to expand its asset purchases was meant to send a clear signal that the central bank doesn't have an instrument vacuum.

Key Quotes:

"If monetary dominance is to prevail the central bank should not hesitate to use all the tools available to fulfill its mandate",

"Reaffirms the central pillar of monetary dominance which is our commitment to our mandate,"

"We acted because we saw a real risk of not achieving our price stability objective over the medium-term. One may argue that we could have tolerated a deviation of inflation from our aim (namely to stabilize inflation around levels not far from 2% in the price stability range) for longer. Yet in my view this would have extended the notion of the medium term to temporal dimensions that would have been hardly justifiable on the basis of accountability to our objective".

"The mandate is meaningful only if exercised and assessed within reasonable time limits".