Bundesbank President Weidmann urges ECB policymakers to remain patient on reforms

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann urged policymakers at the European Central Bank to remain patient over policy reforms and first analyze the full impact of the recently announced measures, while warning them that the risk of those policies has increased over time.

"I’d like to stress one thing: Our definition of price stability requires that the inflation rate target is achieved in the medium term," Weidmann said Monday while speaking at a conference in Frankfurt.

The ECB aims to keep inflation just below two percent over the medium term, but it has missed that target for the past three years. Policy makers have responded with a range of unorthodox measures aimed at driving inflation back toward target, including negative interest rates and a massive bond-purchase program.

Moreover, the ECB has cut rates deep into negative territory and bought assets in excess of 1 trillion euros to lift inflation, currently stuck just below zero, reports said.

The ECB official further mentioned that the current monetary environment is devoid of the need of any further monetary easing. Weidmann also conceded that the current expansionary policy of the central bank is inappropriate, given the weak inflation outlook.

He also warned that the ECB had little experience to such unconventional measures, including bond purchases and that "the risks and side effects of ultra-loose monetary policy increase over time."