The European Central Bank held interest rates steady Thursday but left the door open to more policy stimulus, highlighting "great" uncertainty and abundant risks to the economic outlook.
It also repeated that its 80 billion euro ($88 billion) a month asset-buying program – which Draghi deemed "quite successful" – would run until March 2017, or beyond if necessary, until it sees an upward adjustment of inflation toward its target.
Overall, the ECB is buying 1.74 trillion euros ($1.91 trillion) worth of assets to cut borrowing costs, induce spending, lift growth and ultimately raise inflation, which has been stuck either side of zero for the past two years.
Draghi declined to address the issue, disappointing some expectations, but said that technicalities would not stand in the way of the asset buys and the ECB would review the program if necessary.
Italian banks, weighed down by about 360 billion euros in bad debt and falling share prices, are also a headache for the ECB, which is the eurozone's bank supervisor.
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