ECB's Draghi: A very substantial degree of monetary accommodation is still needed

Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB, is crossing the wires, reiterating that a very substantial degree of monetary accommodation was still needed.

Key quotes:

• The euro area’s economic expansion, supported by the ECB's monetary policy measures, continues to be firm and broad-based
• Measures of underlying inflation, however, have yet to show convincing signs of a sustained upward trend
• There are no indications of widespread asset price misalignments and credit developments remain modest
• Headline inflation has increased largely reflecting energy and food inflation
• Asset purchase programme, at current monthly pace of eur60 bln, is intended to run until end-dec 2017, or beyond
• Progress towards durable, self-sustaining convergence of inflation towards 2% target not yet convincing