(MENAFN- AFP) The monetary policy pursued by the European Central Bank has allowed eurozone interest rates to be decoupled from those elsewhere, notably in the United States, a top ECB official said.
"This year we cut interest rates twice and where we formulated our forward guidance," ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure told journalists late Monday in remarks embargoed for publication on Tuesday.
"It is consistent with our strategy, objectives and in addition to our communication and it has worked by decoupling interest rate for example from the US. It's not a 100 percent decoupling but it was not the aim," Coeure said.
The US Federal Reserve has made clear its intention to "taper" or start gradually phasing out some of its anti-crisis measures. And the prospect has spooked investors in Europe, too, that the ECB might also begin to reverse its ultra-loose monetary policy stance which has fed into eurozone interest rates in general.
Quizzed about the ECB's next possible moves, Coeure reiterated that the central bank "has a bit of time" to consider its options.
Asked whether it might embark on so-called quantitative easing or the purchase of assets, he replied: "We can use it" under the ECB's own treaty, "but I don't see inflation prospects requiring that" at present.
Eurozone inflation is currently very low at 0.9 percent and far short of the ECB's target of close to but just under 2.0 percent.
The ECB is pencilling in average annual inflation of 1.4 percent for the whole of 2013, followed by 1.1 percent in 2014 and then 1.3 percent in 2015.
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