ECB ready to extend Quantitative Easing beyond March if required - Liikanen

The European Central Bank is ready to extend its asset buying programme beyond March if required to reach its inflation objective, Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said on Thursday.

The ECB has introduced a number of stimulus measures, but the inflation rate still remains some way off the bank's target of just below 2 percent. In March this year the ECB cut its main interest rate from 0.05 percent to 0 percent and its bank deposit rate from minus 0.3 percent to minus 0.4 percent.

The ECB has stepped up its programme of quantitative easing, and is now buying €80bn worth of bonds a month. The central bank is currently looking at a range of options to keep its asset buys running smoothly and markets expect a 6 month extension of the 80 billion euro per month scheme as inflation forecasts put price growth below the bank's 2 percent target even in 2018.

"We will carry on the programme until the end of March, but we will go beyond that if required to reach our price stability target," Liikanen, the Finnish central bank governor, told a news conference.

Leading economic institutes on Thursday urged the European Central Bank to wait and weigh the effects of its bond-buying programme before taking more expansionary steps.