ECB Draghi: 'Very Substantial' Monpol Support Still Needed

By Jack Duffy

     PARIS (MNI) - The Eurozone economic recovery is now firm and broad but

"very substantial" monetary policy support is still needed to bring inflation

back to its target, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Monday. 

     "The firm economic recovery still needs to translate more convincingly into

stronger inflation dynamics," Draghi said, speaking to the European Parliament.

     "We are becoming more confident that inflation will eventually head to

levels in line with our inflation aim, but we also know that a very substantial

degree of monetary accommodation is still needed for the upward inflation path

to materialise," he said.

     Draghi repeated comments made following the Sept. 7 policy meeting the

rising euro represented "a source of uncertainty which requires monitoring with

regard to its possible implications for the medium-term outlook for price

stability."

     He said the Governing Council will decide later this year "on a

re-calibration of our instruments that maintains the degree of monetary support

that the euro area economy still needs to complete its transition to a new

balanced growth trajectory characterised by sustained conditions of price

stability."

--MNI Paris Bureau; tel: +33 1-42-71-55-41; email: jack.duffy@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$$EC$]