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Milan - The European Central Bank (ECB) is ready to do whatever it takes to keep its mid-term inflation target on course, the head of the bank Mario Draghi said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
"If we are convinced our medium-term inflation target is at risk, we will take all the actions necessary," Draghi told the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
"We will see if further stimulus is needed. The question is open," he said.
He said inflation in the euro zone was expected to remain close to zero, if not negative, at least until the beginning of next year.
"Starting from the middle of next year and through all 2017, thanks also to the delayed effect of exchange rate depreciation, we expect inflation to gradually increase," he said.
Consumer prices in the 19-country euro zone slipped by 0.1 percent in September, prompting calls for the ECB to expand or extend its 60 billion euros a month of asset purchases.
Asked about what other monetary tools the ECB could use, Draghi said the bank already had an impressive set of monetary policy instruments at its disposal.
"It is however too early to say... 'this is the catalogue' and that there are no more," he said.
In reply to a question on whether a cut in the deposit rate was a tool that could be used together with changes to quantitative easing policies, Draghi said it was "premature to make this evaluation".
He said there was no direct link between what the ECB did and what the U.S. Federal Reserve did.
The ECB wants to keep inflation below, but close to 2% over the medium term and launched in March a government bond buying programme to flood the euro zone economy with cash and in this way accelerate price growth, now stifled by weak economic growth and very cheap energy prices.
The ECB is studying new stimulus measures that could be unveiled as soon as December and is prepared to cut its deposit rate deeper into negative territory if needed to fight falling prices, Draghi said earlier this month.
The risk of the euro zone fragmenting had diminished greatly "if not vanished", the ECB president said.
Asked about Greek debt, Draghi said it was sustainable if Athens met the obligations it had signed up to.
"Second, the sustainability of the debt requires it be cut," he added.
