Coeure Says ECB Would Extend QE If Inflation Impact Not Enough

(Bloomberg) — European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said the institution’s quantitative-easing program could be expanded or extended if the impact on inflation isn’t judged enough.

“If we haven’t achieved what we want to achieve and I should say what we should achieve, because that’s the mandate of the ECB and it’s in the treaty — which is having a firm perspective that inflation goes back to 2 percent, close to 2 percent but below 2 percent as we say it in the medium term — then we’ll have to do more or we have to do it for longer,” Coeure told Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

ECB President Mario Draghi pledged on Thursday to buy 60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month of assets including government bonds through September 2016, adding that buying will “in any case be conducted until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation.”

“It’s intended to last until September 2016 and then we’ll reassess and we’ll see if it is enough or if it is not enough,” Coeure said. “We’ve been able to design it in a way that brings as many people as possible on board. So yes, we’re happy.”

–With assistance from Stefan Riecher in Davos and Francine Lacqua in London.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Black in Frankfurt at [e-mail]; Jana Randow in Frankfurt at [e-mail] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O’Brien at [e-mail] Paul Gordon, Craig Stirling