European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi signalled on Thursday ECB plans to boost its 1.1-trillion-euro (1.3-trillion-dollar) monetary stimulus plan in December to head off the threat to the eurozone posed by deflation and slowing emerging economies, according to dpa. "The degree of monetary accommodation will need to be re-examined at our December meeting," Draghi told a press conference after the ECB's governing council left interest rates at an historic low of 0.05 per cent. Draghi said the ECB's 60-billion-euro bond-buying programme, or quantitative easing scheme, could be extended beyond its current cut-off date of September 2016 "if necessary." The ECB will have the latest economic growth and inflation projections when it meets in December. Last month's inflation report showed prices fell 0.1-per-cent in the eurozone from a year earlier. The lack of price pressure, along with cooling in major emerging economies including China, Brazil and Russia, have ratcheted up pressure on the central bank to extend its bond-buying programme. Draghi warned that risks to the 19-member eurozone economy were on the downside as due to the unpredictable global outlook and "heightened uncertainty in emerging economies, which could weigh on eurozone economies." He said the ECB had still not decided what measures to take to stoke inflationary pressures and ensure the eurozone remained on an economic growth path. "We are ready to act if needed," he said. "We are open to a whole menu of monetary policy instruments." Driving the bank's deposit rate deeper into negative territory to help force more money into the eurozone's financial system was one of the methods under consideration, Draghi said. The deposit rate is what banks are charged for parking money with the ECB, so lowering the rate further into negative territory increases the costs of holding funds at the bank. "It was not a case of wait and see but work and assess," Draghi told reporters at the press conference, which followed the Frankfurt-based ECB's meeting in Valletta, capital of the small island state of Malta. The September drop in consumer prices, which follows recent plunges in oil prices, pushed inflation in the eurozone further from the central bank's annual inflation target of just below 2 per cent. At the same time, the low oil price was shoring consumer spending, which was helping the domestic eurozone economy to build up resilience, Draghi said. The inflation picture is "less sanguine," he said, cautioning that consumer prices will remain low for a protracted time. Draghi pointed to the rise in the euro "to a somewhat significant level" as working against the bank's efforts to edge inflation higher and to end the threat of a deflationary cycle. Before Thursday's meeting, the euro had climbed 8 per cent against the dollar since March amid uncertainty as to whether the US Federal Reserve will deliver a rate hike this year. But the euro fell as Draghi spoke, in expectation that the ECB will launch another round of monetary easing in December. The common currency slumped by 1.34 per cent to 1.185 dollars. The Malta meeting of the Frankfurt-based bank's 25-member governing council is one of its regular out-of-town meetings. The island state with population of less than 500,000 joined the eurozone is 2008 and since then has emerged as a model economy for the ECB. With a round of major structural changes, the Maltese economy now boasts solid growth, low unemployment and healthy state finances. However, as a reminder of the fragile economic outlook for the eurozone, the European Commission said its consumer confidence survey for the region slipped this month.
