ECB sees no evidence of asset bubbles from ultra low rates: Draghi

[WASHINGTON] The European Central Bank will continue to do what is necessary to boost inflation and has not seen evidence so far that exceptionally loose monetary policies are creating asset bubbles, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday.

Mr Draghi added that the economic outlook for the eurozone faces uncertainty due to risks to growth prospects in emerging market economies, a clouded outlook for oil prices and geopolitical risks.

"While accommodative monetary policies over an extended horizon may have unintended consequences for certain sectors in the form of excessive risk-taking and misaligned asset prices, we do not currently see any broad-based evidence of excesses in the behaviour of banks and other financial institutions and valuations of euro area asset prices," Mr Draghi said in a statement.

Mr Draghi also repeated the ECB's forward guidance that the key policy rates will remain at the current or lower levels for an extended period of time, well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.

REUTERS