FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has not discussed ending its asset-purchase programme, ECB Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure told a German newspaper, though he said that would have to happen at some point.
"There is no plan to cut back the purchases to zero. That wasn’t even discussed by the Governing Council. A discussion will be needed about normalisation of monetary policy but it needs to be initiated carefully," he told daily Boersen-Zeitung in an interview published on its website on Friday.
He said there were still risks from uncertainty in Europe and abroad, which could cause economic damage by holding back investment and consumption.
"Outside the euro area, major changes are expected in U.S. economic policy, with a stronger focus on fiscal policy. These changes will reverberate across the global economy, with both positive and negative implications which are still difficult to assess," the paper quoted him as saying.