STRASBOURG France (Reuters) - A stronger euro exchange rate is a risk to the sustainability of the euro zone recovery, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Monday.
While reiterating his position that the exchange rate is not a policy target for the ECB, Draghi said it was nevertheless an important driver of future inflation in the euro area.
"Certainly, the appreciation that took place since mid-2012 had an impact on price stability," Draghi told the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in Strasbourg.
"In the present context, an appreciated exchange rate is a risk to the sustainability of the recovery," he added.
The ECB, which cut interest rates to record lows last month as part of a package of measures to breathe life into a sluggish euro zone economy, has faced pressure from the French government to bring down the euro's exchange rate, as a stronger euro risks hurting euro zone members' exports.
(Reporting by Paul Carrel and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Susan Fenton)