FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank does not shape its monetary policy based on surveys of economic activity and will continue to print money until inflation picks up, its chief economist said.
"You don't conduct monetary policy based on changes in PMIs," Peter Praet, who is also a member of the ECB's executive board, said.
Euro zone business growth remained tepid last month, with the ECB's massive asset-purchase programme having little apparent impact on economic activity or price pressures, a Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.
Praet repeated President Mario Draghi's recent words that the ECB will continue to buy assets until September 2016 or until there is a sustained pick up in inflation towards the ECB's target of almost 2 percent.
He added some measures of core inflation that the ECB monitors have moved down recently.