European Central Bank Prsident Mario Draghi warned Friday the pace of recovery in the eurozone was unlikely to pick up in the near future. "The latest flash euro area Purchasing Managers Index released yesterday suggests a stronger recovery is unlikely in the coming months, with new orders falling for the first time since July 2013," he said. Draghi added that the ECB was ready to do whatever is necessary to combat persistent low inflation in the eurozone, which is seen as a threat to recovery prospects.
"We will continue to meet our responsibility. We will do what we must to raise inflation and inflation expectations as fast as possible, as our price stability mandate requires of us," Draghi said. He added that this may come in the form of the ECB beefing up its purchasing programme.
In recent month the ECB has scaled up its stimulus efforts by putting billion of euros into the economy to unblock lending to households and companies.
"If on its current trajectory our policy is not effective enough to achieve this, or further risks to the inflation outlook materialise, we would step up the pressure and broaden even more the channels through which we intervene, by altering accordingly the size, pace and composition of our purchases," he said.
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