FRANKFURT (Reuters) - It is too early for the European Central Bank to consider further policy measures before its current stimulus steps have been fully implemented, ECB Governing Council member Ardo Hansson said.
Since the summer, the ECB has cut interest rates to record lows, offered banks new long-term loans, and announced plans to buy private sector assets - a programme with which it aims to stimulate lending to support the flagging euro zone economy.
Hansson, the head of Estonia's central bank, told MNI in an interview that it would take some time until the impact of these measures was "felt in the economy".
"So much is in the pipeline now that it is premature to be putting further measures on the table already," Hansson was quoted as saying on Friday.
Hansson said it was also too early to decide whether the ECB should broaden is asset purchases to include government bonds, a step that is also known as quantitative easing and which has been used by major central banks to revive their economies.
"The one question that has been raised most often is, 'Is there a possibility or a need or a desire for the central bank to buy government bonds?' That's a decision, I think, for the future," Hansson said.
(Reporting by Eva Taylor and Paul Carrel)