Draghi: We Want Inflation Hardening Around 2%

        FRANKFURT--European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said in remarks published Wednesday that in assessing the path of inflation, the ECB will not only want to see inflation approach the 2% mark, but also hardening around that level.
        The remarks suggest that the ECB will be patient in determining when the right time is eventually to pull the plug on its bond-buying program, which it started in March and expects to continue until September 2016.
        Referencing remarks made last week at the European Parliament, Mr. Draghi said "I stressed that the Governing Council will take a holistic perspective when assessing the path of inflation. We will evaluate the likelihood for inflation not only to converge to levels that are closer to 2%, but also to stabilize around those levels with sufficient confidence thereafter."
        "When doing this assessment, the Governing Council will follow its monetary policy strategy and concentrate on inflation trends, looking through any surprise in measured inflation (in either direction) if judged to be transient and with no implications for the medium-term outlook for price stability," he added.
        The ECB has said it will buy EUR60 billion ($65 billion) per month in mostly government bonds in an effort to boost inflation in the currency bloc. The most recent data, published Tuesday, showed inflation in the 19-country eurozone was 0.1% below the level of a year earlier in March. The ECB targets inflation over the medium term at just below 2%.
        In his remarks, which were delivered at an event Tuesday, Mr. Draghi also said the ECB's first publication of accounts of its meetings, which happened in the second half of February, was successful in capturing that discussions can be "fluid" and that there is a "shared commitment" by the Council to implement the decision.
        "As the account of the January discussion shows, the final decision taken in the light of the discussion slightly modified the initial proposal under consideration. The Council decided to accelerate and frontload the impact of asset purchases by increasing the monthly asset purchase volume to EUR60 billion, from the EUR50 billion considered initially," he said.
        He said that not providing a record of how Council members voted, "allows members to support the decision of the committee, even if they may have personally preferred a different course of action."
        Write to Todd Buell at todd.buell@wsj.com
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        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        April 01, 2015 05:50 ET (09:50 GMT)

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