By Eva Taylor
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank Executive Board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger said on Wednesday that recent comments by the bank's president, Mario Draghi, been interpreted in a "one-sided" manner towards a growth-friendly policy stance.
ECB President Draghi said in a landmark speech at a central bank conference in Jackson Hole there was scope for governments to use fiscal policies to help growth, which some observers saw as a departure from an earlier drive for austerity.
"For me the main message was that structural reforms are the most important tool to solve the problems that we currently have," Lautenschlaeger told a banking conference in Frankfurt.
She called the focus on more growth-friendly government spending "a very one-sided" interpretation of Draghi's speech.
In his Aug. 22 Jackson Hole speech, Draghi also noted that in August "financial markets have indicated that inflation expectations exhibited significant declines at all horizons."
He added that the Governing Council would acknowledge these developments and, within its mandate, "use all the available instruments" to deliver price stability over the medium term.
The remarks have generated heightened expectations that the ECB's policymaking Governing Council will take some form of action when it holds its September policy meeting on Thursday.
However, Lautenschlaeger put the emphasis on governments passing structural reforms to shape up their economies."If I agree with Mr Draghi that structural reforms are a top priority, then I can do nothing but to act in a way that still maintains incentive structures (for governments to reform), whether through (common) euro bonds or central bank actions," she said.
The euro zone economy ground to a hold in the second quarter and inflation hit 0.3 percent in August.
"In the current economic situation low interest rates are necessary," Lautenschlaeger said. "The economy is too weak to justify higher interest rates."
(Reporting by Eva Taylor; Editing by Paul Carrel and Toby Chopra)