The ECB agreed in June to end massive bond purchases by the
close of the year, but Weidmann, an outspoken critic of the
central bank's easy-money policy, said this should be just the
first step in a process that might take years.
"It's also time to begin exiting the very expansionary monetary
policy and the non-standard measures, especially considering
their possible side effects," Weidmann told reporters.
"This normalization process will probably take place only
gradually over the next few years. That's exactly why it has
been so important to actually get the ball rolling without undue
delay," he said.
Weidmann was in the spotlight this week after the newspaper
Handelsblatt said Chancellor Angela Merkel was giving up on
promoting him to succeed ECB chief Mario Draghi next year. She
was focusing now on securing the European Commission presidency
for a German candidate, the newspaper said.
Weidmann made no reference to the ECB succession in his remarks.
Draghi has also guided markets for an interest rate hike only
after next summer, a timeline some hawks consider too soft given
that inflation has rebounded, the bloc is into its sixth year of
expansion and employment is at record highs.
Weighing on the debate whether inflation is already high enough,
Weidmann said that the ECB's projection of 1.7 percent for 2020
is "broadly consistent" with the bank's mandate of close to but
below 2 percent, a view contrary to Draghi's take.
Inflation rose to 2.1 percent last month, mostly on higher
energy prices. It is likely to fall back below 2 percent in the
coming months as domestic price pressures remain muted.
"However, they are likely to intensify as aggregate capacity
utilization increases," Weidmann said about domestic prices.
"They will thus counteract waning impetus from other components
of the inflation rate, such as energy prices."
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, writing by Balazs Koranyi,
editing by Larry King)
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