'No anxiety' on anti-euro parties-Draghi

(ANSA) - Rome, March 9 - The ECB is not suffering "anxiety" on anti-euro parties and attacks on Germany's trade surplus are unjustified, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said Thursday.
    Economic risks remain in the eurozone but they are lower than in the past, said Draghi, had been expected to rule out such risks by some economists.
    The ECB is far from crying victory over inflation, ECB chief Draghi said. "The risk of deflation has practically disappeared" even though "we are still far from being able to cry victory" on inflation, he said, adding that more than four million jobs created are "the response to those who feared that the quantitative easing would create iniquities, benefiting the rich," since "the fairest measure of all is to create jobs".
    The recovery "seems to be gathering pace" and nominal inflation "has again increased largely because of energy and food prices" but "basic inflation continues to be weak", Draghi said.
    The euro is irrevocable but now is the best time to improve the eurozone's monetary union, Draghi said Thursday. "The euro is here to stay," he said, adding that "rather, it is a question of boosting prosperity, making this monetary union work better".
    The idea of a multi-speed EU is that "not all countries are ready to proceed together in the same way" and "as far as I've understood the meaning is that it will be an open accord, available to any other country who wants to join," Draghi said, adding that he did not know "enough" and was keen to learn more at the EU summit "tonight".
    The ECB left rates unchanged and Draghi confirmed that the ECB will cut purchases under its asset purchase programme from the current 80 billion euros to 60 billion euros per month beginning in April through December 2017, as part of its quantitative easing (QE) policy.
    The ECB said that it intends to keep interest rates at the current level or lower for a prolonged period of time, even beyond the end of its quantitative easing programme, which is expected to end in December 2017.
    The ECB announced that it will leave interest rates on hold, with the main rate at a historically low 0%, the deposit rate at -0.4%, and the marginal lending rate at 0.25%.