"The ECB has done and, within its mandate, will continue to do whatever is needed to pursue its price stability objective which now implies also trying to foster growth, in order to close the negative output gap that is putting negative pressure on inflation," Constancio told the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.
According to the ECB, its price stability objective implies inflation rates of just below 2 percent. This target aims to make the monetary policy more transparent, to provide guidance to the public for forming expectations of future pricing policy and to provide measurable criteria for the European citizens to evaluate the activities of the ECB.
According to EU statistical information agency Eurostat, the annual inflation in the eurozone was minus 0.1 on the year in March.
